Since pouring their first drink less than three years ago an Australian non-alcoholic beverage company is set to be valued at $1bn this year as the world wakes up from its Covid-19 hangover and embraces healthier drinking alternatives.
Serial entrepreneurs Carl Hartmann and Mark Livings have raised more than $63m to ensure the expansion of Lyre’s Non-Alcoholic Spirit Co which currently has a presence in 63 countries and annual revenue of around $50m.
Mr Hartmann, who is based on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, expects Lyre’s to be valued at $1bn by the middle of 2022.
Lyre’s, which takes its name from the lyrebird because the company set out to mimic a full range of “true-to-taste” non alcoholic spirits, was established in April 2019.
Since launching, it has won more than 200 awards in the non-alcoholic spirit category. It has more than 100 staff around the world, with its headquarters in London and production plants in Melbourne, the UK, Germany and the US.
In Australia Lyre’s products are sold in Woolworths, Coles, Dan Murphy’s, IGA and major hospital operators. Mr Livings is Lyre’s chief executive and lives in Amsterdam.
Mr Hartmann said the Covid-19 pandemic marked a shift in people’s attitudes.
“One of the things we’ve noticed through the pandemic is that people are getting through to the other side of this way more health conscious and they are more mindful of what they put into their bodies,” he said.
