{"id":40890,"date":"2026-05-29T00:23:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:23:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/05\/29\/non-alcoholic-beer-maker-taking-on-multinationals\/"},"modified":"2026-05-29T00:23:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T04:23:13","slug":"non-alcoholic-beer-maker-taking-on-multinationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/2026\/05\/29\/non-alcoholic-beer-maker-taking-on-multinationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-alcoholic beer-maker taking on multinationals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"maincontent\" role=\"main\">\n<div id=\"main\" itemscope itemtype=\"http:\/\/schema.org\/Article\">\n<header>\n<h2 itemprop=\"name\" data-epic-field=\"title\">                  Non-alcoholic beer-maker challenging multinationals dominance     <\/h2>\n<\/header>\n<div>\n<p><span>                                                   Updated \/ Thursday, 28 May 2026 11:45                               \t\t<\/span>     <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<figure id=\"main-article-image\">\n<p>                                  <img decoding=\"async\" itemprop=\"image\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/0024700a-800.jpg\" alt=\"Owners of Fierce Mild and Killowen Farms at Bord Bia Bloom 2026\">             <\/p><figcaption data-epic-field=\"thumbnail_caption\">CEO and co-founder of Fierce Mild Fergal Caroll and marketing manager at Killowen Farm Pauline Dunne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<section itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-epic-field=\"content\">\n<p>More than a hundred food and drink companies will be showcasing their new products and flavours at Bord Bia&#8217;s Bloom Trade Breakfast tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n<p>It brings together suppliers and industry heavyweights, like supermarket chains and restaurant and hotel owners.<\/p>\n<p>Bord Bia says that the event has a proven track-record in helping to secure new business listings for exhibitors.<\/p>\n<p>Up-and-coming brewery Fierce Mild is one example.<\/p>\n<p>Following initial conversations made at Bloom last year, the non-alcoholic beer producer successfully launched a product range that is now delivered daily to over 200 stores nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to RT\u00c9 Morning Ireland at the Phoenix Park, the company&#8217;s CEO and co-founder Fergal Caroll said that &#8220;the timing felt right&#8221; with &#8220;the cultural shift our drinking habits&#8221; in Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>After years of working in Australia and seeing the variety in the beer segment there, Fergal and his brother-and-law decided to create a local Irish brand in the market &#8220;dominated by multinationals&#8221;.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"CEO and co-founder of non-alcoholic beer brand Fierce Mild\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/0024700b-614.jpg?ratio=1.34\"><figcaption>CEO and co-founder of non-alcoholic beer brand Fierce Mild<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Non-alcoholic beverages &#8220;is the fastest growing segment within the beer industry with alcohol consumption at a 20-year low down 33%&#8221;, Fierce Mild\u2019s CEO added.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our desire and our need to socialise and celebrate occasions is still there. That has not gone. We&#8217;ve definitely designed this brand and this beer to fit within Irish culture and where it&#8217;s going.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At Bloom\u2019s Trade Breakfast, food and drink businesses have a chance for an informal conversation with over 250 retail and foodservice companies, including Dunnes Stores, Tesco, Lidl, Musgrave and M&#038;S.<\/p>\n<p>With fierce competition in the dairy segment, establishing a brand in supermarket chains can be hard, said marketing manager at yogurt producer Killowen Farm Pauline Dunne.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Approximately 70% of yogurt is imported\u2026 So for the Irish yogurt producers it&#8217;s just about constantly pushing your brand.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Following the previous Trade Breakfast, the company managed to expand into Tesco UK, increasing the number of stores stocking its products from 250 to 850.<\/p>\n<p>Killowen Farm has been managed by the Dunne family for nine generations.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Marketing manager at Killowen Farm Pauline Dunne\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/0024700c-614.jpg?ratio=1.33\"><figcaption>Marketing manager at Killowen Farm Pauline Dunne<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It\u2019s all about making the brand &#8220;sustainable&#8221; and &#8220;good-natured&#8221;, Ms Dunne said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We have 300 cows, so it&#8217;s the milk we&#8217;re producing from those cows is what we&#8217;re using to make Killowen Farm yogurt.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>To certain extent business done at Bloom can shape what consumers might see on supermarket shelves or in restaurants, said Bord Bia\u2019s foodservice manager Maureen Gahan.<\/p>\n<p>Less processed, healthier foods are among recent food industry trends, presented at the festival.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Maureen Cagan Bord Bia Bloom 2026\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rte.ie\/images\/0024700f-614.jpg?ratio=1.5\"><figcaption>Bord Bia&#8217;s foodservice manager Maureen Cagan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&#8220;We do see that consumers are more and more concerned not just about where their food is coming from, but also how it&#8217;s produced. So we&#8217;re seeing definite drive and demand for clean label and &#8216;better-for-you\u2019 offerings.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Bloom Trade Breakfast is taking place for 13th time this year.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<div>\n<h4>More stories on<\/h4>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Non-alcoholic beer-maker challenging multinationals dominance Updated \/ Thursday, 28 May 2026 11:45 CEO and co-founder of Fierce Mild Fergal Caroll and marketing manager at Killowen Farm Pauline Dunne More than a hundred food and drink companies will be showcasing their new products and flavours at Bord Bia&#8217;s Bloom Trade Breakfast tomorrow morning. It brings together [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"","ocean_second_sidebar":"","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"","ocean_custom_header_template":"","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"on","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","entry","has-media"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sharewatch.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}