Two months after launching its Disorderly TeaHouse sparkling tea at retail, Lagunitas Brewing Company is rolling out a variety pack with a new flavor — Peach Slice — that begins shipping this week with plans to hit retail shelves in early June.
The variety 12-packs will feature Peach Slice along with existing flavors Yuzu Lemon and Mixed-Up Berries, and will carry a suggested retail price of $19.99. Each 12 oz. can checks in at 5% ABV, 100 calories and zero grams of sugar. Disorderly TeaHouse is made with guayusa tea leaves, which the Heineken-owned craft brewery said “are hand-harvested and hand-picked by Indigenous farmers from Ecuador.”
Speaking to Brewbound, Lagunitas CMO Paige Guzman said the early indicators on Disorderly TeaHouse’s launch “are looking good,” with “some nice velocity traction in major chains like Whole Foods.”
The success of variety packs in the hard tea and hard seltzer segments led to Lagunitas fast-tracking Peach Slice to push the variety pack for the summer selling season, Guzman said.
“I grew up in the Midwest — I’m from Chicago, originally — and there’s something about summertime, and a big bushel of peaches that I think is really going to resonate with our consumers,” she said.
Peach Slice will start exclusively in the variety pack, although Lagunitas is considering adding draft in California, Guzman said. Other formats, such as 19.2 oz. single-serve cans may follow, given how well the first two flavors have sold in the convenience channel.
Asked about early lessons with Disorderly TeaHouse, Guzman said consumer and retail acceptance on the West Coast has been “very quick.”
“We’re doing very well in our home state of California and doing great in chains like Whole Foods and Sprouts where there is that consumer that’s looking for a better-for-you product,” she said. “They’re looking for lower calorie, no gluten – it’s already in their mission when they walk into that store of the types of products they’re searching for.”
Although Lagunitas initially viewed Disorderly TeaHouse as an off-premise play, Guzman said there is an opportunity in on-premise retailers to turn the brand into an experience, Guzman said. She shared that one retailer in Minneapolis is serving Disorderly in pitchers over ice with lemon wheels.
“These are things that we hadn’t thought of,” she said, adding that the company is embracing the opportunity to add “theater” to the brand. “We’re thrilled to see it start to have a life of its own.”
As distribution for Disorderly TeaHouse builds eastward, Guzman said she’s “bullish” on the variety pack’s prospects, with programming coming in Total Wine and More stores that she said should be a “catalyst for the product to really gain massive consumer acceptance.”
Guzman also offered a few Lagunitas nuggets.
Convenience Up Double Digits; Maximus Double IPA Trending Up
Lagunitas’ business is up double-digits in the convenience channel year-over-year, Guzman said. Helping drive that growth is the success of 19.2 oz. single-serves, including the initial Disorderly TeaHouse flavors and Maximus Colossal double IPA, which Guzman described as “on fire.”
Last March, Maximus was repackaged and redesigned — and the company increased the ABV from 7.5% to 8%. So far, those changes have paid off as Maximus is +71% in sales and 136% in distribution, Guzman said, citing NielsenIQ data.
“The consumer trend is there, the liquid is there and we’ve got strong distribution that’s growing,” Guzman said. “And that’s the magical trifecta.”
Non-Alc Portfolio Depletions +40% in Q1
Depletions of Lagunitas’ non-alcoholic portfolio — Hoppy Refresher hop water and non-alcoholic beer IPNA — are also “on fire,” following the company’s “Drink Without Drinking” campaign in Q1, Guzman said.
The result of that campaign was a +40% increase in depletions in Q1 and points of distribution increasing to more than 4,000.
Lagunitas Partners with Integer for new IPA Creative
Lagunitas is working with creative agency Integer on a new campaign for IPA that is expected to launch later this year.
“It’s our flagship, it’s still a huge percentage of our business, and we are looking to invest against it in a lot of markets that maybe traditionally we didn’t do,” Guzman said. “You need to consistently drive awareness on your flagship products. This is a repertoire category consumers want to explore, they want to try new things, and we’ve got to constantly remind them that we’re the one of the OGs in this category and still the best.”
Year-to-date through April 17, Lagunitas IPA’s dollar share of craft has declined 0.07%, to 1.94%, as both dollar sales (-11.6%) and case sales (-14.5%) in multi-outlet and convenience stores tracked by market research firm IRI. Nevertheless, Lagunitas IPA is the sixth best-selling craft beer brand in off-premise retailers and a top three selling IPA.
Chicago Taproom to Reopen After 2 Years
Lagunitas’ Chicago taproom is slated to reopen by the end of the year after being closed for two years during the pandemic. A target date is sometime in October if everything goes as planned, Guzman said. The company is working to ensure it has the right concept, staffing and leadership to reopen in a meaningful way, she added.