Molson Coors and The Coca-Cola Company are partnering again this fall with the launch of Peace Hard Tea, a 5% ABV malt-based version of Coca-Cola’s Peace Tea.
Peace Hard Tea will be available in single-serve 24 oz. cans in September, with three flavor offerings: Freedom of Peach, Really Really Razzy and More Peace More Lemon. The flavored-malt-beverage (FMB) will first be available in the convenience store channel in the Southeast region – consistent with how Coca-Cola packages and sells the non-alcoholic Peace Tea – with “future potential to enter in multi-pack format and larger grocery store availability,” a spokesperson told Brewbound.
Peace Tea is the third Coca-Cola brand to cross into the bev-alc space through Molson Coors. Other partnership products include Simply Spiked Lemonade, Topo Chico Hard Seltzer and Topo Chico Spiked, which launched last week.
Both Simply Spiked and Topo Chico Hard Seltzer have been able to maintain growth more than a year after launching. Both brands were top 10 beer category share gainers in the last 52 weeks in off-premise channels tracked by NIQ (total U.S. AOC + liquor plus + convenience, ending March 25), each increasing share of beer dollar sales +0.2%.
“The way we’re looking at our innovations is we’re looking at flavor more broadly,” Molson Coors CEO Gavin Hattersley said during the company’s Q4 earnings call with investors. “So, it includes seltzers, but it also includes FMBs and RTDs. And when you look at those segments together, we grew more share than any other supplier in the last 52 weeks. … So, we’ve still got lots of upside with our existing innovations that we just launched.”
The launch of Peace Hard Tea comes as FMBs continue to grow, increasing dollar sales +18.2% and volume +11.2% in the last 52 weeks (ending April 2) in multi-outlet plus convenience channels, according to market research firm Circana. The segment recorded the second largest percentage increase in dollar sales in the period, behind non-alcoholic beer (+20.8%). In the last 4 weeks, the segment increased dollars sales +15.3% and volume +9.2%.
FMBs (+0.3%) and non-alcoholic beer (+7.5%) were also the only two beer category segments to increase dollar sales in the single week ending April 3. FMBs recorded nearly $62 million in dollars sales during the week in Circana-tracked channels.
Monster Beverage originally launched Peace Tea in December 2007 as a competitor of non-alcoholic tea brands such as AriZona. Coca-Cola took over production in 2015.