Hallmark Wines has a rose hard seltzer.
How hot is the hard seltzer market? Even the Hallmark Channel is now selling packs of rose hard seltzers.
Not a typo. Yes, Hallmark Channel Wines, that famous beverage company that also sometimes makes saccharine holiday movies and old-timey paper cards for people who don’t know how to use gifs, has a rose hard seltzer. (And apparently, a robust “seasonal” wine selection, including a “crisp and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc” named Joy, according to Hallmark’s wine website.)
Hard seltzer sales have doubled since last year and are poised to stay strong.
This makes a certain kind of business sense. The hard seltzer space is increasingly crowded by the day, with names such as Travis Scott and Cacti, an Anheuser-Busch agave hard seltzer and chef Gordon Ramsay’s Hell’s Seltzer, which includes a flavor called, and we’re not making this up, Knicker Twist.
According to retail sales from early this year, hard seltzer is on track to regain its pre-pandemic sales steam. National Retail Solutions, which tracks sales across over 11,000 convenience and liquor stores, found that hard seltzer sales are almost double in the first quarter 2020 year-to-date, compared to traditional beer sales which are up 5.6%.
NRS also notes that the Hallmarks, the Gordon Ramsays and the Travis Scotts of hard seltzers are leading to crowded shelves. Selection of hard seltzer products increased by 50% in the last year. In some cases, the variety of hard seltzer flavors and new products is literally crowding out products in the non-alcoholic segment, from iced tea to sports drinks. The amount of products in the soft and non-alcoholic space have declined recently, to make room for the new hard seltzers, even though sales remain strong for those categories, according to NRS.
Smirnoff Seltzer. (Photo by Tom Cooper/Getty Images for Smirnoff Seltzer)
The hard seltzer market was long dominated by White Claw, which held 71% of the market in 2019. Fast forward a few short years and the manufacturers of hard seltzers have nearly doubled. Packages of hard seltzers are up 122%, and brands like Truly are enjoying a new popularity and ensuing sales surge following the debut of line extensions, such as lemonade and tea.
A mix of innovative new hard seltzer flavors, jazzy packaging and marquee names is resonating with consumers. Therefore, companies such as Hallmark, Smirnoff and Anheuser-Busch, keep putting out new hard seltzer flavors, in jazzy packaging, with marquee names.
White Claw once held over 70% of the hard seltzer but it has dropped to 50% as new products enter ... [+]
According to NRS, this has at least two effects. One: Unique items increased 35% the first quarter of 2021 compared to the previous year. And two: while White Claw is still the big heavy in their market, new products have chipped away at White Claw’s market share, bringing it down to a mere 51% of the space.
As Americans ease out of lockdowns and head into bars, it will be curious to see of the boom in hard seltzer stays fizzy or goes flat. We’re on the edge of outdoor party season, and for many younger consumers, beer is increasingly being replaced by hard seltzer.
