The beer, wine and spirits giant – based around brands such as Modelo Especial, Corona, Kim Crawford, Meiomi and The Prisoner – hopes to reap the rewards of being one of the early movers in pushing Big Beer. into hard seltzers, as well as the alcohol e-commerce sector.
This year it is doubling its seltzer hard drive capacity and launching a new product as it looks to grow later in the segment.
And with the pandemic pushing consumers towards e-commerce, Constellation says this will be a ‘significant growth pillar’ for the company in the future.
Launch of new hard drive seltzer for 2021
The beer industry remains the largest sector and source of growth for Constellation Brands – an industry that remains ‘extremely strong’. It draws on the brand parity of one of its biggest brands – Corona – with its hard seltzer release in the US last spring.
The 4.5% ABV drink maintains its # 4 position in the sector, according to CEO Bill Newlands, with more to come in 2021.
“With only one SKU launched so far, Corona Hard Seltzer is still going higher than we expected,” He said, speaking in the company’s Q3 employment call last week. “Early next fiscal year, we expect a Corona Hard Seltzer Variety Pack No. 2 launch, which will give users the same taste and refreshing properties of Corona as they expand into new flavors: including vinegar, straw, raspberry and passion fruit.
“Variety Pack No. 2 will be followed shortly after by the introduction of another seltzer hard drive.
“We believe these product launches will help strengthen our competitive position in the fast-growing hard seltzer sector, expand our distribution reach and increase our high-end market share. the market. ”
The hard seltzer sector is jumping to the next level in the US with the inclusion of products from the major players: Topo Chico of Coca-Cola / MolsonCoors; Bud Light Hard Seltzer from AB InBev and Vizzy from MolsonCoors, to name a few. Corona Hard Seltzer is Constellation Brands’ big bet in the market – but not its only entrant.
Funky Buddha – the 2017-acquired Constellation craft brewery – has launched a solid seltzer that has performed ‘extremely well’ in their Florida market, and Newlands says it will build on the t This was a success in 2021. Constellation has a small investment in PRESS – ‘also very well done’ in the sector.
Move early in alcohol e-commerce
Marcas Constellation acquired DTC brand Empathy WinesLast July: hopefully not only to a growing brand but also to have the opportunity to accelerate digital startup capabilities across the broadest wine and spirits portfolio.
While a growing number of customers have turned to e-commerce over the pandemic, it has also been heavily weighted towards a higher end than the wine market with wine at $ 20 + price makes up nearly 90% of total DTC sales, Newlands notes.
“We are successfully leading our emerging digital commerce initiatives,” He said.
“Since acquiring Empathy Wines, we have made significant progress in leveraging the platform and their unique capabilities across our portfolio within the DTC and e-commerce space of three. standards. We have launched several new DTC sites, taking advantage of the Empathy platform, including The Prisoner Wine Company, Double Diamond and Simi.
“We believe this sector will be a pillar of growth for Constellation in the future. In fact, our competing ‘Power Brands’ wines in the e-commerce space outperform the entire wine sector as our early investment in the sector gives us a meaningful first-mover advantage.
“In our quarter, we became the first CPG company to partner with Instacart to showcase our results on Facebook ads, taking Constellation to the next level of three-tier e-commerce media by bringing allow us to develop our creative and targeted advertising based on real-time data. ”