Southern California-based tequila brand Løs Sundays is expanding into ready-to-drink cocktails with the launch of its Sparkling Tequila Seltzers line, available in four flavors.
While celebrity backed brands from the likes of Kendall Jenner, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, LeBron James and others have dominated the narrative around luxury tequila as of late, Løs Sundays has quietly established a following in the space over the last four years for its three bottled tequila varieties (blanco, reposado and coconut) that skew towards younger, female consumers. According to data from CircleUp Growth Partners, which led a $3.5 million funding round in the brand in June, more than 60% of Løs Sundays consumers are under age 34 and less than 10% are over 55. The company also ranked in the 97th percentile for social growth and engagement on Instagram out of more than 2,800 spirits brands monitored on CircleUp’s proprietary Helio system.
The release of Løs Sundays’ new RTD Sparkling Tequila Seltzers offers an opportunity to grow alongside that core consumer, according to co-founder and CEO Mitchell Hayes. With distribution for its bottled tequila now established, Sundays is rolling out the seltzers in four flavors — Tropical, Watermelon, Agave Lime and Grapefruit, all with 4.7% ABV each — in single-flavor 4-packs ($10.99) or variety 8-packs ($19.99). The product will launch at off-premise retail in five of the brand’s top markets — Texas, California, New York, Arizona and Tennessee — over the next two weeks, with distribution via Løs Sundays’ existing partner, Southern Glazer’s.
Coming from Australia, Hayes noted, he and his co-founders were used to various kinds of canned cocktails playing a bigger part in drinking culture, and always envisioned entering the RTD segment themselves. Upon seeing the “hard seltzer tidal wave” hit a few years back, however, the company decided to wait for the market to settle before launching their own beverage, which uses its house blanco tequila with real fruit juice, sparkling water and natural flavors.
“We look at it as giving our consumers another way to enjoy our product,” said Hayes. “I know they are drinking White Claws on the weekends or at parties or at the beach, so if we can give them a way to have Løs Sundays in a can that’s still a really good offering, it’s just another way to enjoy our product. So we kind of look at it as a line extension — instead of an anejo, we are releasing the seltzers.”
The release of Sparkling Tequila Seltzers marks another chapter in Løs Sundays’ fast growth story, which has seen it enter roughly 3,000 stores across 30 states, plus Washington, D.C. In contrast to other premium brands, Hayes argued that his brand’s irreverent yet approachable identity has helped it capture a digital following that defies its relatively small size, and that creative flavor innovations like Coconut have helped open doors for on-premise placements. The brand is supporting that growth by balancing its presence both on digital platforms and on-the-street, under the banner of creating “happy water for fun people.”
“There’s a lot of great tequila and great products out there, and so a lot of it comes down to marketing and creating demand,” Hayes said. “We really feel like once we have brand awareness and where we are at digitally, I think more brand ambassadors and reps that work directly for us, that aren’t just the Southern Glazer’s reps, is definitely very beneficial for the brand.”