ISH is Building a Full ANA Portfolio to Keep Consumers Coming Back – and Help Retailers Win

When Morten Lee Sørensen set out to build ISH in 2018, he had a specific mission: make it easy, attractive, and accessible to be a mindful drinker. Not for one occasion. Not for one type of consumer. For all of them.

That ambition led to something unique in the ANA space – a brand that offers non-alcoholic spirits, RTD cocktails, wine, and beer. And it has produced a 40-50% return customer rate that Morten credits directly to having something for everyone.

But ISH didn’t get there by launching everything at once. Morten built the portfolio in a very deliberate order – and that sequencing turned out to be the foundation of both the consumer loyalty ISH enjoys today and a retail partnership model built on genuine category expertise.

Building From a Single Umbrella

From the beginning, Morten positioned ISH not as a spirits brand, a wine brand, or a beer brand – but as an adult non-alcoholic beverage company. The distinction matters. “We are a non-alcoholic beverage company, and that’s our umbrella,” he explained. Having something for every occasion – and every type of drinker – was never an afterthought. That was the point.

But building a portfolio that earns repeat business isn’t simply a matter of adding products. It required figuring out the right order to build in, the discipline to resist moving faster than the business was ready for, and a willingness to remove things that weren’t working.

Starting With the Hardest Thing First

ISH launched with non-alcoholic spirits in 2018 – not because it was the easiest entry point, but because Morten believed it was the most important one to get right.

“We started with spirits because that was the most difficult thing to do – to make a good non-alcoholic spirit,” he told me. Nailing the foundation first gave the portfolio somewhere to grow from. Once ISH had credible spirits, RTDs followed naturally: pre-mixed versions of the same cocktails that served as a lower-commitment entry point for new consumers while making it easier to control the experience.

“People weren’t necessarily mixing them right, which means they didn’t really have the experience we wanted,” Morten explained. “So, if we mix the gin and tonic for them, and this is how it’s supposed to taste, then maybe they start with that as an entry point, at a lower price point, and then they buy the bottle.”

Wine came next – a natural addition given its role as the second-largest ANA category after beer. ISH tried canned wines at one point but pulled them back when the margins didn’t work and the market wasn’t ready. “We had to remove the canned wines because that didn’t work,” Morten said. “It was too early, probably. There are a lot of learnings along the way.”

The Three-Year Decision

Beer had been on ISH’s roadmap for three years before they launched it. The delay was intentional.

“We had so much going on, so we had to make sure we had our other categories rolling and doing well, and then introduce the beer,” Morten told me. What looked from the outside like a long runway was, internally, a discipline about sequencing.

The reasoning was clear-eyed: launching new SKUs too quickly risks suffocating the ones already in the market. “If we don’t ensure velocity on existing SKUs, we’re going to bite our own tail and just run in circles,” he explained. “If we are too fast in putting new SKUs out, we’re going to suffocate the existing SKUs. And that was the main decision.”

It was, by his own admission, a difficult one. “When you’re creative, you want to get it out there. You think it’s the most brilliant idea in the world. So you have to kind of pace yourself.” That patience also allowed the ANA beer market itself to mature – by the time ISH entered with a functional beer containing vitamins and electrolytes, consumers were ready for something beyond the standard non-alcoholic lager.

“The development of non-alcoholic beer in the consumer’s mind has really evolved and matured,” Morten noted. “Seems like now people are ready for a next generation of innovation in terms of beer.”

What a Full Portfolio Does for Consumers

The breadth ISH built over seven years turns out to match closely how new ANA consumers actually behave.

“The new consumer into the non-alcoholic world has a very explorative mindset,” Morten said. Data ISH tracks shows consumers want mixed packages and bundles – they want to try a few different things rather than committing to a single product. A brand with spirits, RTDs, wine, and beer can serve that curiosity in ways a single-category brand simply can’t.

The cross-sell dynamic compounds over time. “If people are into beer, they’ll try our beer. If they like the beer, there’s a good chance they’ll try our wine as well,” Morten explained. “If we can constantly deliver on product performance and product quality and taste, it’s much easier for us strategically to cross-sell.” The 40-50% return rate reflects consumers finding enough range within the ISH portfolio to keep coming back rather than going elsewhere.

A Different Kind of Retail Conversation

The same portfolio breadth that keeps consumers engaged gives ISH a different kind of conversation with retail accounts.

“Even before we had the beer, when we had the wine, the spirits, and the cocktails, we could see it was very helpful for the retailers to have a one-stop shop,” Morten told me. That positioning has created an opportunity ISH has deliberately cultivated – the ability to advise retailers rather than just supply them.

Rather than pushing a full SKU list onto every account, ISH has learned to match its selection to the specific environment. Cans work well in retail. Spirits perform on-trade. A functional beer with vitamins and electrolytes opens up wellness and sports-adjacent segments. “We can customize a selection of 3-4 SKUs to a certain account, make them very happy with that, and not try to push the full range onto them,” Morten explained. “I don’t think the non-alcoholic tequila is for you. I would take that out of the mix, but I would add in RTD spritz – and then we can help, advise, and consult in that way.”

It’s a positioning that builds trust with buyers. ISH prioritizes what will actually sell in a given environment over maximizing placements – and that makes it a partner worth keeping.

Building a Beverage Company, Not Just a Brand

Morten is candid that the breadth comes with genuine complexity – managing supply chain across multiple formats, ensuring every SKU has velocity, knowing when to pull back something that isn’t working. “There’s no doubt that it adds complexity to the setup,” he acknowledged.

But the alternative – going deep on a single format and ceding the rest of the occasion map – would conflict with the mission ISH has held since day one. “I love the fact that we’re living up to our promise and our purpose of really giving people different options and having something for everybody,” he said.

That vision increasingly aligns with where the broader beverage industry is heading. Established alcohol companies are repositioning themselves as full beverage companies as functional drinks and ANA options take a growing share of overall sales – a shift Morten sees as an affirmation of the direction ISH has been building toward from the start.

For retailers, distributors, and buyers watching the ANA category develop, ISH offers a useful example of what it looks like when a brand is built to serve the whole occasion – not just one corner of it. A 40-50% return rate isn’t just a business metric. It’s evidence that consumers, when given enough range within a brand they trust, have good reasons to stay.