Metal Heads: Liquid Death Started a Canned Water Revolution, Now the Cavalry Has Arrived

When Liquid Death declared “Death to Plastic” at its launch in January 2019 consumers had already long been asking for more sustainable options from their grocery purchases, but few could have predicted just how far that one brand’s succinct marketing tagline would go. Today, the canned water maker has raised over $195 million with a valuation of $700 million, achieving 94% national distribution coverage through its DSD and broadline network, with the potential to service 346,000 doors nationwide.

Liquid Death, however, is far from alone in its mission to bury the PET bottled water format alive, and in the years since its launch helped to disrupt entrenched perceptions around water marketing and packaging, numerous canned water competitors have emerged. Liquid Death, of course, wasn’t the first to put still water in a can or make sustainability core to its message, but it no doubt has helped lead the changing face of the bottled water category as brands that predate it (like Proud Source Water and Richard’s Rainwater) have launched their own canned lines. Newer startups, like the NFT-themed Ape Water, Path Water, Yesly, and aluminum bottled brand GEN Z, among others, have also brought their own irreverent, brand-first approaches to the category.

According to market research firm Circana (formerly IRI), retail dollar sales of bottled water rose 11.3% to over $24.2 billion in the 52-weeks ending February 26. However, of the top brands tracked by Circana, all primarily sell plastic-packaged products, although one – Waiakea (up 44.4% to over $50.1 million) – has introduced a refillable aluminum bottle.

Although plastic may still be alive and kicking, aluminum bottled and canned water offerings are nevertheless gaining traction, and there’s plenty of evidence that larger companies are paying attention to the trend. In March, both Proud Source and GEN Z were acquired by corporations looking to add sustainable brands to their CPG portfolios.

Kaumil Gajrawala, managing director in equity research at Credit Suisse, told BevNET that he views the aluminum-packaged water trend as part of a broader premiumization of the bottled water category. While demand for sustainability is driving much of the innovation, there’s also been a shift towards branding-forward plays and higher quality water (such as alkaline, for example) in recent years that is further bringing attention from retailers and investors to metal packaging.

Those qualities are certainly reflected in Liquid Death, which also makes its Mountain Water sourcing a key selling point. However, that marriage of premium traits is also now being mirrored by canned brands like Ape Water, Badass Water Company, and most recently Monster Energy’s Tour Water.

“There’s no doubt that the consumer will pay more money for some version of an added benefit in the category,” Gajrawala said. “And that’s a nice transition – for many years, it was about having the right package and the right place at the lowest possible price, and it was a price war for a while. It’s not that those businesses disappear, it’s that there’s an emerging of an entirely new segment of beverage, or a segment of water that is premium, and seems to be working.”

In particular, Monster’s Tour Water shows a large company quickly jumping onto an emerging trend. Launched in retail in February, Tour Water is a line of unflavored still and sparkling waters sold in 19.2 oz. and 16 oz. cans. The drinks are nothing new for the company – Monster has been producing canned still water under that name since 2003, but until now it was only available backstage at event activations such as sports tournaments and music festivals. While the can design varied over the years, Tour Water’s old look was very similar to a standard Monster can – featuring the brand’s iconic green ‘M’ logo on a black background – doubling as marketing for the core line as consumers often got the impression that extreme athletes and musicians on stage were pounding back can after can of high-caffeine energy drinks.

With Tour Water’s retail rollout, the drinks now have unique can designs featuring colorful drawings with co-branding from Vans Warped Tour. The liquid itself is sourced from deep well water and the company has highlighted the aluminum packaging as being “infinitely recyclable.” There is also, perhaps, a tinge of Liquid Death’s irreverent “Hydrate or Die” ethos in the ad copy as the brand website declares: “It doesn’t give you energy but WTF you gotta drink water sometimes or else you’re gonna die.”

In Monster’s annual investors meeting webcast in January, co-CEO Rodney Sacks said Tour Water will primarily target the convenience, grocery and mass channels in both single and 12-pack formats. As well, Sacks was optimistic that the line could eventually move into the Coca-Cola distribution network, noting the company had given Monster its “blessing” to compete in the bottled water set.

Gajrawala suggested Tour Water could also compete in the on-premise channel, noting that branded can waters have a long runway in accounts such as bars and nightclubs where consumers may want something more experiential than a glass of tap water.

“It offers a lot to the retailer to have something branded, that people are happy to walk around with at a bar, or a club or a festival,” Gajrawala said. “It’s just an entirely new offering within the context of something where the liquid might not be that different.”

That strategy, of course, has already been embraced by Liquid Death, which is the exclusive water of over 120 Live Nation concert venues nationwide. Gajrawala suggested there is plenty of opportunity for multiple brands to compete in that channel, however, as the core concept behind canned waters is embraced by consumers.

Category Pioneers Meet Their Moment

When University of Miami grads Jess Page and Nicole Doucet co-founded aluminum-packaged brand Open Water in 2014, the market for sustainably packaged water was still in its infancy. Though carton-packaged brands like Boxed Water Is Better had been founded years prior, the options for refillable and single-use aluminum products were few and far between, and the startup (originally called Green Sheep Water) put sustainability and plastic reduction at the center of its messaging.

“When we were first starting out, I think people thought we were a little bit crazy,” said Page, who serves as the company’s Chief Brand Officer.

Today attitudes have changed and – particularly within the past three years – Page said the brand has seen significant growth and has begun moving beyond its core business in the foodservice, hospitality and travel channels and into retail, including accounts like Central Market, Erewhon, Fred Meyer, Fry’s, King Soopers and Whole Foods. Most recently, Open Water expanded its product portfolio with the launch of 16 oz. “Tallgirl” cans in still and sparkling varieties, complementing its 12 oz. cans of still water (which debuted in 2018) and its flagship resealable bottle line.

While it may have been a niche proposition when it first launched, Page said that putting sustainability front and center of the brand has now paid dividends as consumers prioritize environmentally friendly products. The focus on cans may also help push consumers to recycle more, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, in 2018 50.4% of aluminum cans were recycled, compared to just 29.1% of PET bottles.

In July 2022, Coefficient Capital reported that 64% of millennials and 58% of Gen Z consumers said they prioritize sustainability when making purchasing decisions, while 44% of Gen Xers and 34% of baby boomers placed similar value. A February 2022 report by the IBM Institute for Business Value, surveying over 16,000 people in 10 countries, including the U.S., found that 93% of respondents reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had influenced their views on sustainability and 51% said sustainability was more important to them than it was a year before. As well, 49% reported paying an average premium of 59% for “products branded as sustainable or socially responsible.”

“If you look historically back at the bottled water industry [and] at some of these legacy brands like Fiji and evian and VOSS, they all kind of had the same messaging,” Page said. “They’re all talking about the source, but the message itself is very similar: They’re talking about 1,000 year volcanic filtration and glaciers or water coming from the clouds. It’s very romanticized, and I think that the consumer has changed a lot. They’re not necessarily looking for that messaging anymore.”

But although consumers have shown a willingness to pay more for environmentally clean drinks, Open Water has deliberately sought to keep its price point on the lower end – 12 oz. cans retail for under a dollar and the Tallgirls are about $1.50-$1.59 – in order to make sustainable options more widely available to consumers from all income brackets.

And more recent entrants into the space are also feeling the lift. Mananalu, the canned and bottled water brand founded by actor Jason Momoa in 2019, in partnership with can manufacturer Ball Corporation, is now expanding its retail business with accounts like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Albertsons and Ralph’s. It’s also making headway behind the scenes in Hollywood by working with film and TV studios, including HBO Max and Warner Bros. According to CEO David Cuthbert, Mananalu has similarly made sustainability the core ethos behind the brand, in particular focusing on ocean clean-up campaigns.

While Momoa’s star power has been significant in raising brand awareness and opening doors for the brand, Cuthbert noted that retailers have been proactive in expanding their aluminum-packaged water offerings in the years since the brand has launched. It currently markets a line of aluminum bottles online and in retail, but the company also produces cans which Cuthbert said may become a bigger focus next year.

“We started with zero shelf space [for sustainable waters] two or three years ago in some of these outlets – literally zero,” Cuthbert said. “And now you look out and there’s all these brands and there’s all this space, like linear feet dedicated to metal packaging for water products.”

For Mananalu, building the brand around the entertainment industry will continue to be a major pillar for growth, Cuthbert said, noting that Liquid Death’s Live Nation deal is helping lead the way for other brands to pursue similar spaces. “It’s an enormous market, and there are niches where we’ll be successful, and there’s niches where our competitors will be successful,” he said, highlighting the “dozens upon dozens upon dozens of brands” in the plastic-packaged bottled water set that are able to succeed despite tight competition.