NIQ: Vodka RTDs Are the Category’s Best Recruitment Tool as Core Sales Slide
The vodka business is shrinking, but suppliers can pivot to new formats and styles to recruit the next generation of buyers, according to a new report from NIQ.
Spirits Industry News
Joel Gott Wines, Powerhouse Producer of Affordable Wines, Turns To RTDs
A winery known for its entry-level supermarket staples is tapping ready-to-drink (RTD) and functional trends with a new release launched today.
In Rebrand, Free Spirits Ditches The Wellness Pitch For Cocktail Culture
As many companies across the beverage aisle run towards wellness, one alcohol replacement brand is backing away from it. The Free Spirits Company has overhauled its packaging, formulas and messaging across its full lineup of zero-proof spirits and ready-to-drink (RTD) cocktails, repositioning the five-year-old brand toward the cocktail ritual itself.
Brown-Forman CEO Lawson Whiting to Retire as Successor Search Begins
Brown-Forman president and CEO Lawson Whiting will retire, effective once the company names a successor, the Jack Daniel's parent announced today.
Spirits Distribution: RNDC Fallout Squeezes Suppliers; SGWS Cuts Jobs; Suppliers Jump to Reyes
The near-complete wind-down of Republic National Distributing Company’s (RNDC) national operations is sending shockwaves through the three-tier system – triggering a wave of transitions and emboldening distributors to delay payments, according to suppliers. Meanwhile, the country's largest spirits distributor has cut staff.
Southern Glazer’s to Cut 1% of Workforce in Digital Sales Shift
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (SGWS) will slash 1% of its workforce as it implements a more tech-heavy business model, the beverage-alcohol distributor announced Tuesday afternoon.
Sazerac Moves Spirits, RTD Portfolio to Reyes in Colorado
Reyes announced Tuesday that Sazerac had selected the multistate distributor’s recently acquired RBG Spirits & Wine of Colorado branch as its new distribution partner.
Top Dog Cocktails Makes $1.3M Investment In Flamboyant Water To Fuel RTD, Caribbean Expansion
Philadelphia-based Top Dog Cocktails has invested $1.3 million in a strategic joint venture with Caribbean beverage brand Flamboyant Water to build a line of ready-to-drink (RTD) rum cocktails and develop a foothold in an untapped market.
New RTDs From Vodkade, Wild Tide, E-40 and More
A slate of mid-summer RTD releases brings Vodkade’s attempt to fill the spiked sports-drink flavor gap, two wine and cola combos, a hard ginger beer built on an orange wine base, and more. Here's what's new on the shelf.
Zero Proof Playbook: Soft Bar On What Sustains A Non-Alc Third Space
We spoke with the team from Soft Bar + Cafe about how the third space gets cocktails to resonate with guests, what's selling, and where the category still has room to grow.
M&A Activity For Scaled RTD Brands Expected to Ramp Up
"It's going to be an M&A musical chair game," Arlington Capital Advisors managing director Townsend Ziebold said earlier this month at Beer Marketer's Insights conference, as too many strategic buyers are chasing too few scaled ready-to-drink (RTD) brands.
Hugo’s Cocktails Takes Its Bartender-Crafted RTDs To New Markets
Cristian Molina built Hugo’s Cocktails on the premise that his nearly two decades behind the bar is a better source for flavor research than any focus group
Adam Kost on How Dirty Shirley Cleaned Up
Most founders build to scale, but Adam Kost, founder of ready-to-drink (RTD) brand Dirty Shirley, built to prove.
NÜTRL Founders Back Los Sundays Expansion
The founders who built NÜTRL into Canada's top vodka soda are putting that playbook to use again, this time with tequila.
The Zero Proof Acquires The New Bar For On-Premise Reach
The Zero Proof, a leading ANA beverage platform, today announced the acquisition of The New Bar, a West Coast-based non-alc hospitality and discovery program. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.