Waitrose has introduced a dedicated area for low and alcohol-free drinks in 253 shops across the UK.

In partnership with drinks producer Diageo, the supermarket chain has allocated 60 per cent more space for its full range of over 70 low and no alcohol drinks which include beer, wine and spirits.

The company said that sales of low and alcohol-free drinks have grown by 20 per cent, with beer growing the fastest.

Research commissioned by Diageo found that 70 per cent of UK adults want to be able to find low alcohol and alcohol-free drinks more easily, while almost half of UK adults are switching between alcohol and low and alcohol-free drinks at the same occasion.

The study suggests that a further 40 per cent of adults want to moderate their drinking.

“Demand for low-alcohol and alcohol-free drinks is growing at a phenomenal rate,” said Pierpaolo Petrassi, master of wine, and head of beers, wines and spirits at Waitrose. It’s now the norm for customers to buy both. We expect this year to be the biggest year to date for sales and are preparing for strong demand at Christmas.”

He added: “The growth is down to our customers wanting to moderate their alcohol consumption, but is also heavily driven by the creation of new, great quality new drinks such as Guinness 0.0, Tanqueray 0.0 and Gordon's Pink 0.0. We’ve added 10 new low and alcohol-free products this year and will launch more before Christmas.”

Last month, Waitrose announced a multi-year partnership with Uber Eats to deliver products to customers in as little as 20 minutes. The service is currently available in five London locations and will roll out to more than 200 shops across the UK, including in Wales and Scotland, by the end of August.

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