Boston Beer Company and Beam Suntory today announced a joint venture to extend two of the companies’ most popular brands — Truly Hard Seltzer and Sauza tequila — across categories.
Initial projects within the “long-term, strategic partnership” will include expanding Boston Beer’s Truly Hard Seltzer into bottled spirits and extending Beam Suntory’s Sauza tequila brand into ready-to-drink cocktails. The new products are expected to land at retail in mid-2022.
“Our industry is rapidly evolving, and consumers are looking for new and exciting options that suit a wide variety of occasions, and we couldn’t be happier to have found the perfect partner to extend our brands into the spirits category,” Boston Beer CEO Dave Burwick said in a press release. “This unique, win-win collaboration opens a new frontier for our industry-leading Truly Hard Seltzer brand as we expand into bottled spirits and also allows us to bring a great tequila brand into our best-in-class wholesaler network.”
“We are each tapping opportunities in adjacent categories by unleashing our shared creativity and respective distribution strengths in spaces that resonate with consumers,” Beam Suntory CEO Albert Baladi added in the release. “We’re expanding the reach of loved, iconic brands that have tremendous equity, credibility, and consumer loyalty. Beam Suntory and Boston Beer understand brand building, and as pioneers in premium spirits and craft beer, our combined possibilities are limitless.”
Boston Beer’s “expertise, production capabilities and distribution footprint” will bring Sauza’s RTD to market, according to the release. Similarly, Beam Suntory’s “distilling expertise and robust distribution network” will launch Truly-branded spirits.
In addition to Truly Hard Seltzer, Boston Beer’s portfolio includes Samuel Adams, Angry Orchard, Twisted Tea and Dogfish Head, which also produces distilled spirits. Beam Suntory’s portfolio includes Jim Beam, Canadian Club, -196°, and On the Rocks premium cocktails, which the company acquired in September 2020. Sauza launched a tequila-based RTD offering in 2018.
The moves come as Boston Beer founder Jim Koch has been a vocal opponent of tax equalization efforts by the spirits industry. Earlier this year, Koch urged beer industry trade groups to oppose efforts to bring the tax rates between spirits-based, ready-to-drink canned cocktails in line with beer products in several states, including New Jersey. Those efforts were later pulled from consideration by state lawmakers but are expected to resume later this year.
The Brewers Association board of directors, which represents the interests of small and independent brewery owners, recently approved a position statement opposing equalization.