RTD Canned Cocktails

Tax equalization, expanded direct-to-consumer shipping and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts are key focuses for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) in 2022, president and CEO Chris Swonger detailed in a press briefing Wednesday during the trade group’s annual conference in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The Coca-Cola Company is accelerating its push into beverage alcohol with today’s announcement of a new global partnership with Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey to release a ready-to-drink cocktail.

The Beer Institute (BI) continued to urge President Joe Biden’s administration to lift Section 232 aluminum tariffs, in a statement released Monday.

In the on-premise channel, bars and restaurants have earned more than $12,000 on average from the sale of cocktails in the first quarter of 2022, compared to the 12 weeks that ended October 22, reported CGA, which focuses on on-premise retail occasions.

Anheuser-Busch InBev’s beyond beer division is organizing itself around four priorities: hard seltzers, Cutwater Spirits, Nütrl Vodka Seltzer and Ghost Energy, beyond beer business unit president Fabricio Zonzini shared during Beer Marketer’s Insights’ spring conference in Chicago last week.

Vermont lawmakers have advanced a bill to lower taxes on and grant wider market access to spirits-based, ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktails.

Heineken USA is getting into the spirit-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktail market with Dos Equis Margarita, a line extension of the imported Mexican beer brand that will hit retailers in 10 states by the end of June.

Former Anheuser-Busch InBev executive Felipe Szpigel is merging his high-end, ready-to-drink (RTD) canned cocktail brand Five Drinks Co. into a new beverage venture platform called Better Drinks, that will bring several Brazilian brands into the U.S.

With sales of spirits-based ready-to-drink canned cocktails continuing to boom, battles for turf in the cold box can be tracked to statehouses across the country. And spirit makers are looking for some low-cost ammo: While beer has historically enjoyed favorable excise tax rates, spirit makers are attempting to change those laws, they say, to level the playing field for products of similar ABVs and package sizes.

Waterbird Spirits, the Charlottesville, Virginia-headquartered spirits maker, which specializes in canned ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, is the first beverage-alcohol brand in the country to use resealable lids on 24 oz. single-serve cans, effectively opening up the convenience store channel more widely to spirits-based RTDs.

Wings & Arrow, the brand house of Ashland Hard Seltzer and Villager Spirits canned cocktails, has closed a $10 million funding round, which will help support production of its existing and upcoming beyond beer offerings.

Anthony Spina and Matt Sievers – who’ve worked on brands such as Mark Anthony Brands’ White Claw and Mike’s Hard Lemonade and Pabst Blue Ribbon – have launched their own endeavor: Primer Electrolyte Charged Hard Seltzers.

Off-premise dollar sales of ready-to-drink canned cocktails (RTDs) and hard seltzers have more than doubled in the past three years, increasing +155% since 2019 (through January 8, 2022), according to NielsenIQ data, shared by the Beer Institute’s (BI) VP of research Danelle Kosmal during a webinar Thursday.