Badwater Tequila has overhauled its ready-to-drink offer, replacing its tequila-based hard seltzer range with a trio of canned cocktails.
Originally launched in May 2023 as a producer of tequila-based sodas, Badwater has been reimagined as an RTD cocktail brand.
Cans in Pineapple Crush, Grapefruit Paloma and Lime Margarita are to launch this month via the brand’s DTC store (rsp: £2.75/330ml).
They are set to replace Badwater’s hard seltzers – stocked with Booker and WH Smith – across grocery wholesale and convenience, and will be distributed via a tie-up with Proof Drinks.
Badwater had “dialled up on the juice and down on the soda” in its drinks as part of its repositioning, COO Jason Sennitt told The Grocer.
The 4.5% abv cocktails – which are made from blanco tequila from Jalisco, fruit juice, natural flavours and soda water – now have between 139-163 calories per can, as opposed to the hard seltzers that contained fewer than 100 calories per can.
Sennitt said Badwater had made the change after Mintel research showed its target gen Z and millennial consumers weren’t “prepared to compromise on flavour”.
“That’s the reason that hard seltzers don’t really appeal to them,” he said. “But they remain very health aware, as is widely reported, and tend to opt for better but less alcohol and for drinks with fewer calories and less sugar.”
The “middle ground” in which Badwater’s RTDs would sit represented an “enormous” opportunity, Sennitt said.
“Our new ‘better for you’ positioning delivers flavour far ahead of seltzers, while being notably lighter (sugar and calories, and also alcohol) than typical RTD cocktails,” he added.
The repositioning comes after Badwater appointed former Heineken UK CEO David Flochel as chairman, and Sennitt – a former Diageo, Pernod Ricard and Suntory exec – as COO.
Badwater is not the first hard seltzer brand to distance itself from the category, which has failed to gain traction in the UK and is worth just £14.1m [NIQ 52 w/e 20 May 2023].
In November, vodka-based seltzer brand Drty unveiled a rebrand in a bid to take advantage of growing interest in RTDs, sales of which have climbed 2.8% to £532.2m [NIQ 52 w/e 9 September 2023].
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