Tom Holland On Bero, Sobriety And Breaking Into Beer

For Tom Holland, sobriety didn't just change his life—it inspired his first business venture.

Today, the Spider-Man actor is launching Bero , a new line of non-alcoholic beers, in collaboration with Imaginary Ventures and seasoned brand-builder John Herman.

"There's no secret that as a celebrity, you're constantly being offered these kinds of brand deals," Holland explains. "But I never found anything I felt particularly passionate about—until now.

"When I got sober, I started exploring the world of non-alcoholic beers and realized there was space for me to fit in."

Fast-moving as the non-alc beverage market is, the decision to launch Bero wasn't just about taking a share of it, but meeting a personal need. "My first year sober was really difficult, and had I had Bero, I think it would have been easier," he admits.

"It's a pretty generic story. I was drinking too much. I was the type of person that, when I'd have one beer, I couldn't just have one beer. I knew I'd had a bit of a problem for a while."

The turning point for Holland was Dry January, a public health initiative launched in 2013 by Alcohol Change UK, which encourages Brits to remove alcohol from their diet for 31 days.

"Dry January was really tough," says Holland, "so I ended up spilling over into February. February was no easier. Then I did March, and I sort of said to myself, look, if I can do six months without drinking, I get to June 1, which is my birthday, and I would have proved to myself that I don't have a problem.

"By the time I'd done six months, I started to feel great," he continues. "It was very difficult, it has been the hardest thing I've ever done, and arguably the greatest achievement of my life. I'm very proud to be sober today."

Tough as the road has been for Holland, the realization that there were very few high-quality non-alcoholic beverages on the market–particularly those a former beer lover might enjoy–both frustrated and excited him.

The non-alcoholic (NA) beer market has been experiencing rapid growth, fueled by increasing consumer demand for healthier lifestyles and "mindful" drinking habits.

In 2023, the global non-alcoholic beer market was valued at over $34.1 billion and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.6% through 2028, according to industry reports from Statista and SkyQuest.

Still, he knew he needed a strong business team to make this new dream, to be a major player in the market, a reality.

Enter: John Herman, former President of Nutrabolt, and Bero's new co-founder and CEO. With over 20 years of brand-building experience, Herman most recently looked after global sales, marketing, product development and innovation on C4 Energy, contributing to the parent company's $3 billion valuation and 30% buy-out from Keurig Dr. Pepper.

"I could never do this alone," Holland says. "I feel like I have a real entrepreneurial mind–my friends and I will routinely sit down and come up with ideas for companies, and it always seems so simple. It's like, wow, we have a great idea. We'll just start selling it, and then we'll all, you know, be rich," he laughs, "but there's so much to it logistically.

"Safe to say, we've been absolutely grinding," Holland emphasizes. "And I came onto this project with this idea of, like, I'll sit in a few meetings and look at some swatches, and be like, I like the green better than I like the red. Cut to John and I on the phone all day, every day, with each other. It's been intense," they both nod, smiling.

"That's what surprised me – that building a business like this is like moving a mountain, not just coming up with a great idea, and I'm very lucky that John is capable of moving mountains."

While Herman wasn't on a sobriety journey himself, he was energized by the evolving relationship people have with alcohol, and couldn't say no when Holland and Imaginary told him about their ideas.

"I was thinking about "what I wanted to be when I grew up" again, and I met Tom, and I had been fascinated by non-alcoholic beer," Herman shares. "I was realizing, as I aged, my relationship with alcohol had to change–I have a five and a half year old little girl. I can't afford to wake up the next day and not feel great.

"I think it was also really nice that we were able to come together and just build something with a 'need' state in mind, and make something unique," he continues. "Yeah, we're building a business. We want to make it successful. But the motivation wasn't to create this billion dollar enterprise–that might be the output–but we want to build something special."

But that special product didn't come easy. Starting the process in November 2023, Holland and Herman weren't planning to make one great non-alcoholic beer, but three great beers that just happened to be non-alcoholic.

"It was a really fun process but it got a little daunting towards the end, because we were kind of reaching our self-imposed release date, and we hadn't quite cracked it yet," Holland admits.

For many months, Holland would invite friends and family over for tastings, asking them to mark each sample on its aroma, taste, carbonation, finish, and more. And it didn't start well.

"The first round was an interesting one," he says, with raised eyebrows. "Zendaya hates beer, like, absolutely hates beer. She does not drink beer at all, and the first round of testing she was like, 'wow, these are really tasty', and I was like, 'well, that's probably not a good sign'," he laughs.

With the help of master brewer Grant Wood, Bero went through countless rounds of tweaking and tasting. Many were even sent across the Atlantic so Holland could give notes while playing the titular Montague in Romeo & Juliet in London.

"I remember coming off stage during the second act, walking into my dressing room, seeing my assistant had put the new samples on the table, and I was like, 'f**k it, let me try one now. They're not alcoholic'...and it was not good," Holland quips. "I gave one of the best and most authentic death scenes that evening, just because I was so stressed about getting the liquid right."

Eventually, they nailed the liquid ("finally, we heard the music ringing in the background!" Herman jokes), resulting in three distinct styles of Bero; the Kingston Golden Pils (a fresh take on the bright and timeless, crisp European Pils), Edge Hill Hazy IPA (a juicy, New-England style, tropical and hop-forward), and Noon Wheat (cloudy and classic, with a citrus finish).

"Either everyone in my life is lying to me, or we've somehow bottled f**king liquid gold," Holland quips.

Next up, the aesthetics to match. Deterred by the noticeable blue hue of most non-alcoholic beer cans (see: Beck's Blue, Heineken Blue, Peroni Blue, Gunness 0.0 Blue), Holland wanted to opt for something different. "I found that to be unfair, because sometimes all you want to do is blend in," he says. "When you have the big blue bottle, or the big blue can, you stick out like a sore thumb."

Bero's gold cans felt like the perfect compromise to the pair. Unique enough to set it apart from the competition, while hazy enough to feel classic. Pub-like. True to Holland's vision.

When Herman sent Holland a video of the final product coming off the production line, he couldn't help but shed a tear. "I felt incredibly emotional when you sent that," he says. "Especially because of how difficult it's been getting sober. It really feels like a special journey, and one with a lot of reason.

"A lot of the time with these celebrity brands, you come on, and there's an existing product, and you basically tailor the branding to make it fit to your narrative. With Imaginary, they had nothing. I had an idea, and a bunch of money," he laughs, "and we just had to find someone who was going to captain the ship."

Not willing to take the credit alone, Herman turns the conversation back to his business partner. "To really win, we had to create something that was differentiated and–like, I think it's the most abused word, but in this case, really true–we had to create something authentic. That's all Tom."

Looking forward to reaching his three year sobriety milestone in January, Holland is hopeful Bero can be something of a benchmark in the cultural shift toward moderation and mindful drinking. The ultimate goal is simple: "If we can help people explore sobriety or moderation, that would be my greatest achievement. Everything else would just be icing on the cake," he says.