Since Playboy Magazine shuttered its print magazine in 2020, the nearly 70-year-old company has reinvented itself as a consumer lifestyle brand, licensing its signature bow-tied rabbit for merchandise, gaming, beauty products, and more. Now, Playboy Spirits is building on its limited edition bottles by making a major hop into the high-end spirits and ready-to-drink world, backed by $13 million in new funding announced last month.
The joint venture is a partnership between PLBY Group and XL Ventures, an affiliate of Spirits Investment Partners (SIP). The alcohol beverage group specializes in incubation and growth acceleration of early-stage brands, and is led by Marc Bushala, co-founder and former CEO of Angel’s Envy and co-founder of Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door Spirits. Plby owns a 40% stake in the joint venture, and XLV holds the remaining 60% stake.
Raised by a private investor, the capital will fund the operations of Playboy Spirits, which launched in the summer of last year, and the purchase of rare spirits released under the Rare Hare brand.
The joint venture initially aimed to make a play for foreign spirit markets like China, where Playboy’s brand awareness and a growing thirst for premium bourbon are converging. The bunny rabbit has become one of the most recognized symbols in China, with licensing deals raking in millions for the company.
“In China, Playboy does a couple billion dollars of revenue in apparel alone,” said Bushala. “I found that to be a fascinating statistic, in particular because China is the biggest spirit market in the world by good measure.”
But that vision was cut short by the pandemic, so the venture pivoted to a cross-category portfolio focused on limited releases, with an equal if not greater focus on the U.S. market.
The branding was re-conceptualized too. Playboy’s legacy in the U.S. can solicit polarizing opinions, but its new apparel and lifestyle collaborations have found traction among younger generations who may not even remember its nude magazine days. The aim was to position Rare Hare differently from its many licensed mainstream products, while winking at the Playboy brand.
“We thought the brand positioning should really be that Rare Hare is a curator of rare, unique spirits from around the world,” said Bushala.
Over the past two years the company has sold limited bottlings of luxury whiskeys, tequilas and cognacs in the U.S., Europe and Asia. Less than 2,000 bottles of its $500 inaugural 17-year-old whiskey release were produced for the U.S., with the same number available in international markets. The latest spirit, a 60-year cognac, was double the price tag.
Limited releases will continue about every six months, but the company is gearing up for permanent product lines too. Whiskey in small but not highly limited quantities, ranging from roughly $99 to $150, will launch early next year. Later in 2024, after introducing a limited edition 10-year añejo tequila or cristalino, the company will launch five permanent SKUs, branded as Rare Hare or as a collaboration with Codigo Tequila called Añejo Coñejo (old rabbit).
By pilaring the brand’s architecture with core verticals of whiskey, tequila and cognac, Bushala is positioning the company strategically. Angel’s Envy sold to Bacardi in 2015, one of the major deals during the early wave of independent and craft distillery acquisitions by large spirit companies. Going cross-category with only limited editions may be more challenging from an exit standpoint, he said.
“if you build your entire business around limited releases and multiple categories really all you’re building is brand. And that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have value, but if it becomes a more complicated value proposition,” he said.
Like many beverage companies, Playboy Spirits also can’t resist the hottest category these days: ready-to-drink cocktails. The spirits-based canned cocktails will pull from Playboy’s intellectual property and founder Hugh Hefner’s commissioned art collection. Leading pop artist Andy Warhol’s colorful rendition of the bunny logo will grace the cans, called Play.
The cocktails will target Playboy’s younger drinking-age audience, who are likely among its 9.8 million Instagram followers. Aiming to check all the consumer trend boxes for RTDs, Bushala said the cocktails will feature natural ingredients, no artificial sweeteners, and will maintain a low ABV and calorie count. The RTDs will be released this summer in two markets not yet announced.
“Very different positioning and a very different product with a very different price point than Rare Hare,” Bushala said.