Actor Tom Holland’s Nonalcoholic Beer BERO Gets Private-Equity Backing
Paine Schwartz joins BERO as a new investor as the year-old company seeks to triple sales.
2 min
Private-equity firm Paine Schwartz Partners is backing BERO, a nonalcoholic beer brand launched by British actor and “Spider-Man” star Tom Holland.
A person familiar with the transaction said it values New York-based BERO at more than $100 million and will help support the brand’s ambitious growth plans.
BERO co-founder and Chief Executive John Herman said the company aims to more than double its sales team and significantly expand distribution to roughly triple sales this year.
BERO, which Holland and Herman launched in late 2024, reached nearly $10 million in sales in its first year and expects sales to reach almost $30 million this year, said Herman, who previously served as president of C4 Energy brand drink maker Nutrabolt.
“We weren’t just looking for capital,” Herman said. “We were looking for great partners that could help us grow.”
Paine Schwartz is investing through BetterCo Holdings, a portfolio company in the firm’s sixth flagship fund that it formed late last year to hold non-control investments in better-for-you food and beverage businesses, Paine Schwartz CEO Kevin Schwartz said.
Ultimately, Schwartz said he expects BetterCo to hold five to 10 investments.
BERO, BetterCo’s third investment, falls within the firm’s typical growth investment range of $10 million to $25 million, he said.
Earlier BERO backers include leading talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment and venture-capital firm Imaginary Ventures, which also participated in the latest investment.
“This first external raise is not just a milestone, but a validation of what’s been achieved in a single year,” said Logan Langberg, a partner at Imaginary Ventures.
When they started BERO, Holland and Herman tapped as brewmaster Grant Wood, a past Boston Beer executive who went on to found Revolver Brewing, now part of Tilray Brands.
The brand currently offers four types of beer, including two IPAs. Its products are sold at Target stores, on Amazon.com and at other retail locations, such as supermarket chains Sprouts Farmers Market and Wegmans Food Markets in the U.S. and Morrisons in the U.K. BERO is also available at a number of liquor stores and bars and restaurants.
The company also offers a $55 a year premium membership that offers such perks as free shipping and access to member-only products and limited-edition releases.
To help build the brand’s name, BERO has struck a series of partnerships, becoming the official nonalcoholic beer partner of luxury sports-car maker Aston Martin and fitness studio chain Barry’s.
Nonalcoholic beers, which generally contain less than 0.5% of alcohol by volume, have become increasingly popular and account for the biggest share of alcohol-free drink sales, according to the Beer Institute, a national trade association.
Sales of such drinks are growing at a more than 20% annual rate and were expected to exceed $1 billion in 2025, according to market-research firm NielsenIQ, citing so-called off-premise channel sales it tracks, such as sales at liquor stores and grocery stores. But the bulk of those sales come from the top five brands, such as Athletic Brewing, co-founded by a former trader at Steve Cohen’s hedge fund Point72 Asset Management, NielsenIQ said.
Alcohol-free drinks, the market-research firm said, have emerged as a lifestyle choice—one based not on quitting alcohol but expanding options, with most non-alcohol buyers also buying alcoholic drinks.
“There’s a pendular swing in behaviours that [is] happening right now when it comes to people’s relationship with alcohol,” Herman said.
Corrections & Amplifications undefined Nonalcoholic beer brand BERO offers its fans a premium membership for $55 a year. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said the membership costs $50. (Corrected on Jan. 20.)
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From tax residency and superannuation to offshore investments and property, the financial implications of coming home can be more complex than leaving.
3 min
Every year, thousands of Australians make the decision to pack up life overseas and come home.
After years, sometimes decades, building careers, accumulating assets, and growing families in places like Dubai, London, Singapore, or Hong Kong, the pull back is understandable.
What most don’t appreciate until it’s too late is that the return journey is often far more financially complex than the departure.
Leaving Australia is, financially speaking, a relatively clean event.
You depart, you potentially become a non-resident for tax purposes, and a new set of rules applies.
Coming back, however, means reconciling everything you’ve accumulated offshore with an Australian tax system that hasn’t been standing still waiting for you.
The Tax Residency Trap
The first and most costly mistake is misunderstanding when Australian tax residency resumes.
Many returning expats assume residency only kicks in once they’ve formally re-established themselves, signed a lease, updated their address, started a job. The ATO doesn’t see it that way.
Under Australian tax law, residency can recommence the moment you land with the intention of remaining. That means any taxable events, investment income, asset disposals, foreign account distributions that occur after that point are potentially assessable in Australia, even if they’re sitting in offshore accounts you haven’t touched.
Superannuation: The Clock Doesn’t Stop
One of the most underappreciated issues for returning expats is what’s been happening inside their superannuation fund while they’ve been away.
Contributions may have paused, but fees, insurance premiums, and investment volatility haven’t. Some returning clients are genuinely shocked by how much ground their super has lost to fees during periods of lower balances or inappropriate investment settings.
The more strategic issue is what to do on the way back. If you hold foreign pension arrangements, a UK SIPP or QROPS, a 401(k), and international savings schemes, the question of whether and how to repatriate those funds requires careful planning before you return.
Once you’re a tax resident again, distributions from certain foreign structures can be assessable as ordinary income, and the window to manage that exposure closes.
Offshore Investments Don’t Disappear
Returning to Australia doesn’t sever your obligations in the countries where you’ve been living.
Foreign-held shares, managed funds, or investment accounts will be picked up by Australian tax reporting requirements from the moment residency resumes.
The Foreign Investment Fund rules, transferor trust provisions, and the reporting obligations under Australia’s tax information exchange agreements mean these holdings need to be declared and, in some cases, restructured.
Leaving investments sitting offshore in structures that made sense as a non-resident but create compliance headaches as a resident is one of the most common and expensive mistakes we see.
The restructuring cost, if it’s even possible post-return, typically dwarfs what it would have cost to plan properly in advance.
Property: Both Sides of the Balance Sheet
There are two distinct property problems for returning expats.
The first is what they’ve held while away, an Australian property rented out during the absence.
Depending on how long the property was the main residence and how it was treated during the rental period, the CGT calculation on eventual sale can be complex.
The six-year absence rule provides some relief, but it’s not automatic and has conditions that are frequently misunderstood.
The second is re-entry into the Australian property market.
After years of asset accumulation offshore, many returnees assume they’re well-positioned to buy.
The challenge is that their financial picture, including foreign income history, offshore assets and currency, doesn’t translate neatly into Australian mortgage serviceability.
Lenders read foreign income conservatively, and what looks like a strong balance sheet can create unexpected borrowing capacity issues.
The Fix: Plan Before You Land
The single most effective thing an expat can do is start planning the return 12 to 18 months before departure.
That timeline allows for managed asset disposals under non-resident rules where advantageous, superannuation catch-up strategies, foreign structure rationalisation, and property decisions that aren’t being made under time pressure.
The irony is that most Australians sought financial advice before they left on how to exit cleanly.
Far fewer seek the same rigour on the way back in. Given the complexity involved, that’s an expensive oversight.
Coming home should be a financial clean slate. With the right planning, it can be. Without it, you’ll spend the first few years back unwinding decisions that didn’t have to be problems at all.
Brett Evans is the founder of Atlas Wealth and the author of The Expat’s Handbook.
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