Schilling Cider has no plans to jump on the hard tea train, but the Pacific Northwest cidery still plans to meet similar consumer demand with its latest product launch: Schilling Hard Lemonade.
Schilling Hard Lemonade launched last week in three flavors – Imperial Pink Lemonade (8.4% ABV), Imperial Blue Raspberry Lemonade (8.4% ABV) and Guava Lemonade (6.9% ABV). The lemonades are made with full fruit fermentation, and contain no added carbonation, artificial flavors or colors to emphasize the “more natural taste profile” of the premium product.
“We’ve been looking for years to diversify the portfolio from Schilling,” Schilling co-founder and CEO Colin Schilling told Brewbound. “We’re also looking at categories that are quite frankly bigger than cider as we continue to grow … and lemonade is so within our core competency of being really good with fruit, it’s very fruit forward, [and] we think the full fruit fermentation makes the best possible base for lemonade versus malt or even vodka.”
Flavored malt beverages (FMBs) have increased dollar sales +10.8% in Circana-tracked off-premise channels year-to-date (YTD) through May 19, the second largest percentage growth in beer behind non-alcoholic beer (+29.1%). In the last 52 weeks (ending June 2), hard lemonade and hard tea of all alcohol bases increased dollar sales +15.1% and volume +11.7% in Circana-tracked channels, the third largest dollar sales percentage growth among Circana-defined ready-to-drink products (RTDs), after hard soda (+280%), spirits-based hard seltzer (+42.6%) and single-serve premixed cocktails (+37.6%).
“We’ve always said we want to be the very best partner possible for our distributors and our retailers, and part of that means offering more products to put on their shelves and other things that are going to win in a big way,” Schilling said. “We’re primarily aligned with Miller [and] Constellation distributors, and for those distributors we have to be a certain dollar figure to justify that they pay attention to us.
“Our big bet on this product is there’s not really any players that have premiumized this category on any larger scale,” he continued. “Of course it is an FMB, it is in that category where you’re not saying this is the most crafty thing ever produced, but it is the most crafty thing in that category, which we’re super proud of.”
Imperial Pink Lemonade and Imperial Blue Raspberry Lemonade are available in 12 oz. can 6-packs, while Guava Lemonade is available in single-serve 19.2 oz cans, with the lower ABV meeting standards of fill regulations. All three products are now available in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado and California. Blue Raspberry is also available for limited release on draft, with Schilling open to a heavier on-premise presence in 2025 with the potential of slushee machine offerings or cocktail collaborations.
Schilling has been adamant with distributor and retail partners that Schilling Hard Lemonade should be placed next to other FMBs on shelves, rather than in the cider aisle, in a bid to reach core FMB consumers, many of whom are a part of Generation Z, the youngest legal-drinking-age (LDA) demographic.
“Seeing that hard lemonade and hard tea is 65% of what they [Gen Z] choose if they’re going to choose something to drink, we needed to separate the brand and take some elements from Schilling and incorporate it into that,” Schilling EVP of marketing Rachel Thomas said, noting that the new brand pays homage to Schilling’s Big Zesty Guava Lemonade Cider with an updated version of the brand’s koala mascot, reimagined to stand on its own for consumers unfamiliar with Schilling.
Schilling Lemonade is the company’s No. 1 priority for the summer, with the company investing $100,000 upfront for the initial launch, its largest new brand investment to date. A “Summer of Lemonades” campaign will run throughout the summer, supported by in-store demos, incentives, giveaways and chain programming. The company has also brought on a Gen Z content creator to help with social strategy, Thomas added.
The investment is already paying off, according to Schilling leadership, with company sales doubling or more every month so far this year.
“We’re already at a place where I thought we’d be in two months from now,” Schilling CCO Eric Phillips said.
Distribution partners are also asking to add the product to their portfolios since the initial launch was announced last week, Phillips said. While Schilling is being intentional about any expansion, the demand is promising for the future, he added.
“It’s a really great place for us to be when we’ve proven so much on the cider side that now we have something that’s so strong in a category that’s so big, and an opportunity that is so large, [we] have distributors pining for this,” Phillips said.
“And the exciting thing for me is that I don’t really think it’s on many people’s radar and the sales are already happening,” he continued. “Thinking about the opportunity that exists ahead of us is fascinating to me.”
In Schilling’s home markets of Washington and Oregon, the hard lemonades are already competing with major brands, according to Phillips. In the last four weeks (ending May 26), Schilling was the 10th largest FMB maker in Washington and Oregon grocery, ahead of major brands such as Kirin-Lion (New Belgium) and FIFCO USA (Seagram’s Escapes, Lipton Hard Tea), according to Circana data shared by Schilling. In the same period and channel, Schilling Hard Lemonade was also the 12th largest FMB brand family.
The brand is competing with both new and established brands. In Washington grocery stores in the last four weeks, Imperial Pink Lemonade 6-packs outsold Voodoo Ranger Hardcharged Tea 12-packs, and was within a couple hundred dollars of Boston Beer’s Twisted Tea Original 12-packs.
“The data is very new, but the fact that we are already outselling some very established companies, brand families and SKUs is super exciting,” Phillips said.
Keep It Wild Campaign Nearly Doubles Contributions
Schilling also recently completed its annual Keep It Wild initiative, which raises money for non-profit organizations dedicated to “preserving wild spaces.” The company raised a total of $75,000, nearly double what the campaign raised in 2023.
Each April, Schilling commits 5% of its sales of its Local Legend and Excelsior Imperial Apple hard ciders. This year, the company also received donations from several distributor partners – A&L Distributors, Clear River Distributing, Crescent Crown Distributing, Columbia Distributing, Finley Distributing, Hayden Distributing, High Country Distributing, and RNDC.
“And we let them run with how they wanted to support it,” Thomas said of distributor partners. “Some donated directly, some it was a percentage of the proceeds, some [took] part in the bigger check.”
This year’s beneficiaries included Washington Wild, Oregon Wild, Wildlands Conservancy (California), Western Resource Advocates (Colorado), Voyageurs Conservancy (Minnesota), WildEarth Guardians (Idaho, Arizona, Montana) and Alaska Conservation Foundation.
“Some of the emails we’ve gotten back from the nonprofits have been the nicest things, bringing tears to your eyes, because they’re like, ‘We can fund this finally,’ or ‘My staff is finally getting their projects off the ground,’” Thomas said.
“We bring them exposure, because we have a big reach on our side, but they also lend us a lot of exposure on their side too,” Schilling added of the nonprofits.
“And it’s showing to their passionate followers that we are a company that gives a shit, and I think that’s super, super important,” he continued. “And it’s also very in line with Schilling’s ethics and our values. We are a very sustainably minded company and this is a way for us to put our money where our mouth is and do really good work for them and for the communities that we’re in.”
The campaign also led to a “residual impact” in May, which was the company’s best month ever in terms of sales, Phillips said.
“And how many beverage suppliers have you talked to that said May 2024 was their best month in company history?” Schilling added, referencing industry-wide comments on inconsistent April and May beer sales.
“And that speaks to the point that LDA drinkers, that 21- to 30-[year-old] range, they give way more shits about does your company align with their values,” Schilling said. “It’s not as much about flashy marketing and in-your-face Facebook ads, it’s about ‘Do I resonate with what this company is actually doing?’”