Alcohol-free and low-alcohol (no/lo) drinks are defined, in Great Britain, as beers, ciders, spirits and wines containing no more than 1.2% alcohol by volume (ABV). These drinks are becoming increasingly popular, with around a third of adults saying they have consumed no/lo drinks before and around a third saying they do on a weekly basis. Currently, however, there is still a lot that we don't know about the no/lo market. When did it start to appear? Has the market finished developing or is there more to come? What role have industry, retailers, or the government played in developing the market?

We sought to answer some of these questions through our NIHR-funded project investigating whether alcohol-free and low-alcohol drinks are improving people's health. The findings appear in our paper exploring the development of the no/lo drinks market in Great Britain between 2011 and 2022, which was published recently in Drug and Alcohol Review. This blog post aims to give an overview of the study and what it revealed.

Data collection and analysis
We examined a variety of sources, including five market intelligence reports and over 1,300 articles in specialist magazines aimed at shops which sell alcohol. Members of the project team based at the University of Stirling read each one line-by-line to identify information on:

• product launches and rebrands
• marketing campaigns
• industry changes (e.g. mergers and acquisitions)
• retailer actions (e.g. changes in what products are stocked)
• government actions (e.g. policy changes)
• activities by third-sector organisations (e.g. abstinence campaigns)

Our findings were recorded as 'events' in a comprehensive database which we then used to build a series of timelines showing the development of the no/lo market in Great Britain...