US – Beverage industry leader, BevZero, has appointed its President and Chief Operating Officer Jerome Eckert-Nathan as the CEO, effective immediately.

The long-time BevZero leader and industry expert, Jerome Eckert-Nathan fills the vacated position of Debbie Novograd, who recently resigned from the company for personal reasons.

Novograd was critical in the growth of BevZero over the last several years, including the rebranding of the company to BevZero as a focus on beverage innovation.

He also gave strategic moves that led to the expansion of the core team, and the addition of new service offerings including the White Label program.

Bevzero, views the appointment of Eckert-Nathan as a step towards furthering its strength as a leader in the dealcoholization and no and low alcohol beverage segment.

The beverage giant said Eckert-Nathan has vast international experience and was instrumental in the expansion of BevZero European operations to take advantage of the significant no and low trends and equipment needs.

The company added that he has been influential in making exclusive distribution deals for the equipment side of the business.

Eckert-Nathan commented that he will be leveraging his expertise and learnings to build the global strategy for the next phase of BevZero’s growth.

Eckert-Nathan has been appointed at a time when the company says it is facing challenges in maintaining the flavor profiles of the dealcoholized product, according to Cannabis Drink Expo.

The company also hints that it anticipates an increase in the popularity of non-alcoholic beer even as more craft breweries are developing products and creating a wider variety of flavor profiles.

BevZero’s says its consolidated services and growing team is primed to serve the low- and no-alcohol and alcohol-free growing categories as it expands to reach new consumers across the globe.

This move comes on the heels of a report by global market research firm IWSR that forecasts low- and no-alcohol consumption to increase by 31% by 2024 across 10 markets and the sales of alcohol-free wine to double by 2031.

The markets according to IWSR are Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Africa, Spain, the UK, and the US.

In addition to creating opportunities for brands to participate in the worldwide low- and no- trends, BevZero says it will continue to support the burgeoning cannabis beverage space.

The space relies on BevZero’s dealcoholization services to create products like cannabis wines, beers, and ciders.

BevZero’s team of experienced winemakers and formulators is poised to tackle this space head-on and will continue to drive its growth as the cannabis marketplace expands nationwide and internationally.

BevZero currently provides a full suite of solutions across both services and equipment to a variety of clients in the wine, beer, cider, and spirits markets throughout the world out of its offices in the US, Spain, and South Africa.

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