Hard seltzer market leader White Claw looks to be weighing up a move into ready-to-drink cocktails.
The brand’s owner, Mark Anthony Brands International (MABI), has applied to register the term ‘Clawtails’ with the Intellectual Property Officer under class 33, covering prepared alcoholic cocktails.
White Claw was launched by MABI in the UK in 2020.
The brand has established itself as the clear market leader in hard seltzer, with sales having surged 31.1% to £9.6m on volumes up 44.7% [NIQ 52 w/e 20 April 2024].
However, the broader hard seltzer category has gone soft, beset by confusion over positioning and challenged by competition from RTD cocktails.
Consequently, sales have dwindled by 13.4% to £11.8m on volumes down 13.5% [NIQ]. Meanwhile, brands including BrewDog’s Clean & Press and CCEP’s Topo Chico Hard Seltzer have been quietly shelved.
The wider RTD premixes and cocktails category, however, is comparatively buoyant. Sales are up 3.9% to £589.2m on volumes down 5% [NIQ].
Several brands have pivoted away from hard seltzer to RTD cocktails over the last 12 months as a result.
In May, Badwater Tequila replaced its trio of hard seltzers with 4.5% abv canned cocktails. At the time, the brand’s COO Jason Sennitt told The Grocer hard seltzers hadn’t taken off because gen Z consumers weren’t “prepared to compromise on flavour”.
Drty, meanwhile, ditched the hard seltzer moniker in November 2023, instead electing to position its drinks as RTD vodka sodas.
Ellie Goulding’s Served brand launched a trio of 8% abv canned cocktails in May 2023. Its hard seltzers are still sold by Morrisons and Ocado, however.
MABI said, however, that it had ”no immediate plans to move into the cocktail RTD space”.
“We IP lots of ideas within the UK for White Claw and other Mark Anthony Brands,” a spokesman for the company said.
No comments yet