RTD

Check out news items initially reported in the Brewbound Insider Newsletter August 6-7, including headlines from A-B, Tilray Brands, Departed Soles and more.

How can a new brand make a splash in the increasingly crowded ready-to-drink waters? A winning combination of differentiated flavors, artistic packaging and a willingness to work the market day in and day out. That’s what has been working for Lake Hour, according to CEO Michelle Ivey, this week’s featured guest.

Minute Maid Spiked is adding Vodka Lemonade Iced Tea to its lineup, marking the brand’s first entry into the hard iced tea set. The launch also lands as the brand’s first release since Sazerac took over distribution in partnership with Coca-Cola’s newly restructured “firewalled, wholly owned” bev-alc subsidiary, Red Tree Beverages.

Vodka’s buyer base is aging and drinking less, but new formats can serve as recruitment tools, according to a new report from NIQ. 

The margarita’s grip on cocktail menus is loosening as drinkers, particularly younger ones, have begun to diversify their cocktail choices. After a long reign at the top, challenges to the margarita have emerged: value velocity fell 16% year-over-year (YoY) in Q4 2025 according to a new report from NIQ.

Joel Gott Wines, a powerhouse producer of entry-level supermarket staples, is tapping ready-to-drink (RTD) and functional trends with a new release launched today.

Two years after appointing dual CEOs, Cleveland, Ohio-based Great Lakes Brewing Company (GLBC) is down to one, following the May departure of Steven Pauwels, who returned to his native Belgium to be closer to family, Crain’s Cleveland Business reported.

Republic National Distributing Company (RNDC) plans to lay off 160 workers in Alaska by September 4, the company wrote in a July 6 WARN Act notice.

Philadelphia-based Top Dog Cocktails is putting $1.3 million behind a new joint venture with St. Croix-based Flamboyant Water to launch a four-flavor rum ready-to-drink (RTD) line across the Caribbean and select U.S. markets this fall.

Plant-based beverage maker Elmhurst 1925 has always been ambitious in its broad approach to innovation, be it through milk alternatives, protein drinks or sour cream. Now, it’s going hard.

The time is right for founders of scaled ready-to-drink (RTD) brands to consider exits with the emergence of a “classic seller’s market,” Arlington Capital Advisors managing director Townsend Ziebold declared earlier this month at the Beer Marketer’s Insights business conference.

Most founders build to scale, but Adam Kost, founder of ready-to-drink brand Dirty Shirley, built to prove. In a saturated market, Dirty Shirley was structured from day one as a market-validation project that was lean, disciplined, design-led and deliberately positioned for an early strategic exit – which it got.

The founders who built NÜTRL into Canada’s top vodka soda are putting that playbook to use again, this time with tequila.

Brown-Forman and Sazerac are doubling down on ready-to-drink (RTD) with brand extensions and new-to-world brands launching today.