Spindrift is preparing for its largest product launch thus far with the announcement of three Lemonade-based sparkling waters.
The new varieties, which launch in March, are available in 12 oz. cans in Lemon Limeade, Pink Lemonade and Strawberry Lemonade. Each drink features real fruit juice and less than one gram of sugar with no added sweeteners. The drinks will retail for $5.99 per 8-pack. The drinks will debut next month in Target stores nationwide and online on the company’s website, ahead of a broader rollout.
According to Spindrift founder and CEO Bill Creelman, the lemonade lime began as the company was experimenting with developing a lemon lime flavor which ultimately took on the flavor profile of an unsweetened lemonade. The innovation prompted Spindrift to develop a full line of products — marking the first time the company has rolled out multiple flavors at once — which will blur category lines and allow the brand to compete with both sparkling water brands and full sugar lemonade drinks.
“With the lemonade, we see an opportunity now to expand beyond the traditional flavors and start to redefine categories that are kind of adjacent but may not have had a sparkling water entrant before,” Creelman said.
Creelman noted that while many of Spindrift’s past innovations have been simple fruit forward flavors, the lemonades represent maturation for both the company and the sparkling water category. Calling Spindrift a “community led brand,” he said many sparkling water consumers have been fully educated on the category and are now willing to embrace more complex product formats.
Spindrift is not the first sparkling water maker to tackle a lemonade variant — Polar Seltzer launched its Seltzer’ade line in 2017 with flavors such as Raspberry Pink Lemonade and Tart Cherry Limeade. However, those products are made with natural flavors and Spindrift is the first to do so using real fruit juice, a point that Creelman said has long been the brand’s key differentiator on shelf.
“We’ll see how the consumer responds. I think at first blush, it looks like they’re pretty excited about it,” Creelman said. “I love taking these kinds of chances and there’s always [a question of] will the consumer come with us or not. I think that remains to be seen, but our hope and expectation is that this is the dawn of a new opportunity for overlay of real ingredients and sparkling water into other categories.”
Founded in 2010, Spindrift’s national presence has grown over the past few years to become a notable challenger brand to sparkling water category leaders such as LaCroix, Nestlé and Polar. According to market research firm Nielsen, Spindrift’s dollar sales were up 81.9% to $75.1 million for the 52-week period ending January 23.
Like all companies, Creelman said Spindrift faced uphill challenges at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that have reshaped how the brand does business. He said the company made an early decision to keep its team in the field working with grocery partners when other brands pulled back. As well, Spindrift has focused on keeping consumers engaged digitally and last summer launched its Drifter newsletter program, which provides members with exclusive perks and early access to new products.
“I think the surprising part for me is we’ve been in the business now for 10 years in and I still feel like we’re just getting started,” Creelman said. “We’re really still very much establishing the brand in the channels we’re in and educating like crazy. And so while obviously we have been doing this for a while, I’d say our mindset internally is that we still have a long way to go in terms of the consumer recognizing that there’s an alternative to the natural flavor products.”