Moderating alcohol trends – among other challenges – have claimed the life of Spindrift Spiked, the hard seltzer offering from the non-alcoholic (NA) fruited sparkling water maker.
Spindrift Spiked (4% ABV) launched in 2021 amidst a “then-burgeoning hard seltzer market,” the company noted in a press release.
Spindrift wasn’t the only popular NA sparkling water brand to expand into hard seltzer, but it was the most visible to launch a hard offering without the support of a bev-alc partner. Topo Chico Hard Seltzer (Coco-Cola and Molson Coors) and now-discontinued Arctic Chill (Polar Seltzer and Mass. Bay Brewing, now Barrel One Collective) were both brought to market through licensing agreements between non-alc producers and brewers.
“We quickly learned that building a beverage-alcohol business demands substantial resources and time due to the unique route to market, dedicated manufacturing requirements and necessary regulatory compliance,” Spindrift wrote. “Meanwhile, we saw the alcohol industry facing its own challenges – first with a declining hard seltzer demand and broader consumer trends favoring no-ABV options, mocktails and more.”
Spindrift could easily be forgiven for wading into the segment when it did. In 2020, the Goldman Sachs Equity Research team predicted hard seltzers could reach $30 billion in sales by 2025. In 2021, Spindrift Spiked rolled out into a hard seltzer segment that topped $4.1 billion in off-premise sales the prior year, according to market research firm NIQ.
However, hard seltzer’s heights never materialized, and the segment’s dollar sales have since cooled to $3.037 billion in the 52-week period ending August 13, according to market research firm Circana.
The spinoff leaned on its parent brand’s real-fruit credentials as a differentiator, showcasing its juice-tinged hue compared to its competitors’ clear fizzy liquid in launch materials.
Spindrift Spiked secured distribution in 34 states. As recently as 12 weeks ago, the brand was imploring consumers to “ask [their] local store to carry Spiked” on Instagram.
“We need your help getting it on shelves,” the brand wrote.
The pleas weren’t enough to save the brand though.
“This is a difficult decision, but the right one to better serve the needs of our customers, supporting the tremendous momentum of the current business and strong consumer trends towards non-alc beverages,” CEO Dave Burwick said in a statement.
Burwick joined Spindrift in February, less than a year after his departure from Boston Beer Company. His tenure leading Boston Beer included Truly Hard Seltzer’s boom and bust, during which the brand launched and discontinued several line extensions, such as iced tea and margarita seltzer.
The discontinuation of Spindrift Spiked comes despite positive off-premise trends, with the brand recording double-digit dollar sales (+32.8%) and volume (+34.3%) gains YTD through July 12, according to data shared by 3 Tier Beverages.
Spindrift is not alone in its exit from the segment. Several hard seltzer brands launched in the early years of this decade have also been discontinued, including Molson Coors’ Coors Seltzer and Heineken’s Sun Rise Hard Seltzer (a joint venture with AriZona Iced Tea, which has since launched hard offerings under its own brand) and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Natty Hard Seltzer and Cacti – the latter of which has since been revived by Meadow Creek Spirits.