Brewbound 2025 Rising Star: Outlaw Light Beer

Speaker 1 [00:00] Let's meet our next rising star. It's Outlaw Light Beer. Joining me now is Ari Upsall, CEO of Outlaw's parent company, Tivoli Brewing. Congratulations, Ari and the team at Outlaw.

Speaker 2 [00:14] Thank you so much, Justin, and again, uh, excited to be here and thank you guys so much for the consideration and having us on. Well,

Speaker 1 [00:20] it's definitely earned because you all have had a hell of a comeback story with T Tivoli. And what you've done with Outlaw. So for those who may not be as familiar with Outlaw, can you give them sort of an overview or your elevator pitch of what Outlawed is and does?

Speaker 2 [00:39] Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, we built Outlaw light to be disruptive to, to the domestic beer category, right? And so, When we looked at the landscape of all the domestic beer in the US, you know, I, I think along the lines of brands like Bud Light, Coors Light, Bush Light, Miller Lite, Natural Light, you get the gist. Um, you know, there really hasn't been a lot of innovation in that category or really any new brands that have entered this space. And so when we were talking about, you know, Tivoli and the history behind it being the second oldest brewery in the country, if you actually look back, At Tivoli's history, it's really interesting because Tivoli was actually built on a beer called Buck Beer. Uh, and Buck beer was really meant to be a domestic, economically viable product for all the people chasing the gold and silver rush out in the west and specifically in Colorado. And so, you know, we looked at the category and we said, you know, why, why hasn't there been any other major players entering the space? I mean, if you are a domestic light drinker, You really haven't had a lot of alternatives to pick from out of the box in 2030 years. And, you know, and so we said, look, let's go after it. Let's go after the space, um, you know, obviously, The economics behind it are challenging because we're not producing, you know, in swimming, Olympic swimming pool size batches. We're not, uh, you know, hedging futures of aluminum out of luven to get our can costs down, you know, maybe one day, but, um, you know, as of today, we said, look, it's gonna be a challenge, not just from an economics perspective, but the entire industry and the way that it's built, specifically in the domestic beer market in the US. is really built to not allow us to be successful. Um, and there's a lot of reasons for that. When you look at route to market, you've got, you know, you've got to be able to service chain. If you want to be able to scale, you've got to be with the right distributors that can service a Walmart, a Kroger, an Albertson's. Well, those route to markets, for the most part, are, you know, Anheuser-Busch houses, Olson Coors houses, Constellation houses, and so when you get into You know, hey, Mr. Distributor, I'd like to run a priority on Outlaw Light. They'll say, well, we're gonna give you one slot this year. Well, why does Anheuser-Busch get 9 and I only get 1. And so, we knew all these things would be against us, but at the same time, we believed from day one that the consumer in the US is begging for innovation in this category, is begging for an alternative. And I don't think That anybody out there has the right to say that. The big macro beers are not good beers. And, and I, I will, I will die on that hill. Um, Bud Light is a great beer. Miller Light is a great beer. Coors Light is a great beer. They are all great beers and to be able to produce at that scale, that quality, that consistently is really, really hard. However, consumers want choices. They want alternatives. And if you are a domestic light drinker in today's world, until Outlaw Light came along, You don't have any other choices in the same price bucket, right? You could go up the ladder and go to a garage beer that's priced, you know, up above Michelob Ultra. You could go into craft. There's lots of craft breweries putting out light beers today, but you're not gonna get them for a competitive price on the shelf. And so, we had this hypothesis. We went out, went after it. Now we're, you know, one of the fastest-growing beers in the US, and I think the consumers are showing that. They're looking for something different and we just happen to be there at the right place at the right time.

Speaker 1 [04:25] How would you describe the price bucket that Outlaw fits in?

Speaker 2 [04:29] Yeah, so the way that I think about it is Outlaw is a premium beer. It's a premium liquid, it's premium branding, premium messaging, premium secondary. I mean, even our, even our boxes, our 24 pack box, if you go grab one out of the, the cooler set. is the same quality as a premium plus, a Michelob Ultrabox. Um, that's all intentional. Now, the price that we live in today is absolutely in the value sub-premium category. That is by Design because we want, we, first of all, we do not want price to be a barrier of trial. So we want people to try our beer because they, we know once they try our beer, they're gonna love it, they're gonna come back for more. And candidly, We believe that they will also be willing to pay a premium beer price for that beer. Maybe not today, but over time as we build the brand. And so, we're, right now on a price, you know, uh, conversation, we live in that sub-premium value bucket, but we're absolutely a premium beer. So, that's where we live today and, you know, I can tell you that, you know, using a little bit of price down into that value bucket. It's still a hell of a lot more cost-effective than running Super Bowl ads trying to get people to try your beer. So, that's where we live today.

Speaker 1 [05:50] So the last time I checked in with you, Outlaw was pacing near the 100,000 barrel threshold. How are you faring?

Speaker 2 [06:00] Uh, try double that. That's our, that's our current run rate. So we're growing like crazy. We've now got a full nationwide footprint, um, you know, we posted. I think in August, our, our record depletions was just about, uh, just under 115,000 case equivalents to retail. Uh, that number continues to grow and, you know, Justin, for me, what's most exciting and I, I, I can't share all the details yet, but the conversations that we're having with the major chains, major retail chains. are very, very aggressive from the gains that we're looking at in the spring 26 sets with both large format and small format. So, um, from where I sit, you know, I think we're gonna go from a world where, you know, I would say 2025, you ask around the industry, hey, have you heard of Outlaw Light? What do you think of it? Yeah, a good amount of people have heard about it. They've tried it, they're aware of it. Typical consumer may or may not be aware of it. Um, you know, two years ago, people looked at us like we were crazy. Um, and now going into 2026, everybody's gonna know who we are. Um, and I think that's a, a huge, uh, credit to, not myself, to the team, to the brand, to the efforts that we've been putting in. Um, and being scrappy, I mean, we're winning at retail, and that takes boots on the ground, which a lot of the macro brewers have turned their backs on. You see layoff after layoff, trying to squeeze bottom line, trying to make Wall Street happy on their share price. That's not how you build brands. That's how you kill them. Well,

Speaker 1 [07:35] you've been adding a lot of new markets. How close are you to filling out your map?

Speaker 2 [07:40] We are outside of a couple of counties. We are there. So we're finalizing in Southern California. That was a gap for us. Pack Northwest is getting ready to launch. Southeast is all locked and loaded. We got a couple of holes in South Carolina, I gotta, I gotta fill. Uh, but you know, Justin, it's, it's a great question, where again, I think you got to highlight the fact that, you know, I've got retailers that want product. And I can't get a route to market in some of these limited counties, that doesn't seem very free trade capitalist approach. That seems like barriers to entry if you ask me. So, we'll get there, we'll get over those humps, but I, I would be willing to bet that we covered 95% of current geography.

Speaker 1 [08:27] Right on. And then what are you hearing from the distributors who are bringing you in? What is it that they are, why, why is it that they want outlaw in their houses?

Speaker 2 [08:39] Yeah, so I, I, I gotta, I'm gonna give you a longer answer, uh, because I think it's important to understand the, the perspective here. We went to NBWA two years ago in Vegas. We had a big booth. I was there the whole time, and, you know, we were. Basically begging people to come talk to us, right? Hey, we're outlaw light, let us talk to you. We've got distribution, 7, 10 states, we, we've got something we think is great. Um, fast forward to about, what was that, about a month ago, a month and a half ago at MBWA in Vegas. We had lines out the door. And what has happened in my mind is that first of all, in this industry, as you know, word travels fast, right? So success stories are starting to filter in across the country within different distribution networks. And then I think what, what you look at is you layer in on top, which is the macro trends, right? If you own a distributor in the US right now, You're looking at your book and you're saying, man, is this the portfolio that's gonna be here to support my business 1 year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now. And I think the big declines that you're seeing in kind of the macro light beer world, distributors that are getting out in front of it are saying, well, look, light beer is not going away. But we've got a marketing problem. The big brands are struggling to be relevant. What is gonna be the next light beer in the US, right? And I think what we're seeing now from distributors is they're saying, OK, these guys at Outlaw Light, they're real. They produce all their own volume. They control their manufacturing, so we don't have to worry about, you know, huge out of stock problems, huge production capability problems. Um, and on top of that, they're seeing that we're actually walking the walk. What we say we're gonna do, we do. We say, hey, Mr. distributor, we would love to overinvest in your market. We're gonna put dedicated resources in your market. You know how many times a distributors heard from a supplier, we're gonna put dedicated resources in your market, and then that dedicated resource is a third-party sampling agency that they're gonna spend a couple 1000 bucks on for a year. Happens all the time. We do the opposite. So we actually overinvest, we do what we say we're gonna do, we follow through and we make sure that the brand is relevant. And so, I think what we're seeing is the distributors, you know, kind of waking up and smelling the coffee to the reality, which hasn't been a reality for most of the route to market for 20 years, 25 years that their bread and butter brands might not be what they were one day. Well, who's next? Who can we partner with? Who can we get the rights to now where, you know, the other thing to think about is You know, most of our distributor network didn't have to pay anything for the rights. We gave it to them because we didn't have any distribution in that market. So, I, I think, and now we're finally seeing actually distributors across the country starting to bid for our rights. So everything is building and now we've got these spring sets coming in 206. I, I think 2026 is the year that we see the hockey stick growth that we've all been waiting for.

Speaker 1 [12:01] When you look back on 2025, what do you consider the biggest win of the year for Outlaw?

Speaker 2 [12:07] Oh. Biggest win for Outlaw. Um, you know, I think, obviously, some of the chain bets that the chains have made on us, Albertson's down in the Southwest, been a huge win for us. Kroger up in Ohio has been a huge win. Walmart's been a firm believer and supporter with us, uh, almost from year one or year 2. you know, Circle K, I, I, I can't chalk it up to a single thing, Justin. For me, it's that we're not just winning in one market. We're not just seeing success in one region. We're not just seeing success in one skew. We're seeing success geographically all over the country. Now, are there places we're doing better than Others, absolutely. But in general, we're doing extremely well in very diverse environments, very diverse geographic environments, and diverse retail sets. So, for me, 25 was a, a critical inflection point between, is this thing really gonna have the, the juice. To have the capability to be a top five beer brand in the US, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next year, but can it do it? 25 to me is, yeah, it can. And we're doing it on a shoestring budget compared to what we're up against in the same category that we're in, which I think is a, is a huge, huge proving point for us.

Speaker 1 [13:44] So looking ahead to 2026, what do you see as that biggest opportunity for Outlaw? And I know you mentioned the spring resets that coming online, so I'm guessing that that factors in.

Speaker 2 [13:56] I think that's a huge component of it, but I, I think what gets me most excited about 26 is if you looked at our, if you looked at uh where we make our investments and where we've made our investments for the past really three years as we've scaled, we have Heavily invested in people, in the sales team because I've said from day one, if we can win in the streets, we can win anywhere. Well, what that is netted is a pretty low amount of investment into marketing, right? And for now, that's been OK. Well, 26 is gonna be the first year and I, I actually had a board meeting last week looking at the budgets for 26. We are gonna 5 to 8x our marketing investment in 26. So not only are we gonna get this big distribution lift, but we're also gonna support the hell out of it by driving, pull off the shelf, getting that critical mass of brand awareness that, again, can deliver that hockey stick growth and start eating some serious market share in the category.

Speaker 1 [15:08] Excellent. Well, thank you so much for doing this, Ari. We couldn't be happier to honor you and your team at Outlaw.

Speaker 2 [15:16] We're, we're doing everything we can, Justin. We, uh, you know, obviously we, we view all the other brands that we, uh, that we go up against as, as competitors, but in the end, I want beer to win. Uh, beer is a responsible consumption mechanism, you know, I see all these, you, you opened up the call talking about beatbox, right? I think the average ABV on a beatbox is what, 1012, 14%. I don't see that as promoting responsible consumption. So, you know, I want beer to win. I wish the best against all of our competitors. Stop whitewashing your marketing. Let's make beer fun. Let's get people back into beer, and we're gonna do everything at Outlaw Light that we can to do that. Well, congrats again, Ari. Thank you. Thank you very much, Justin.