Molson Coors Beverage Company announced today plans to upgrade its Burton-upon-Trent brewery in the United Kingdom.
The £25 million investment (about $34.6 million) will add a canning line dedicated to hard seltzer for the company’s Three Fold Hard Seltzer brand and upgrade packaging facilities for beer and cider.
“The hard seltzer and ready-to-drink (RTD) categories present a huge opportunity for growth,” Molson Coors Western Europe managing director Phil Whitehead said in a press release. “The RTD category is the fastest growing in alcohol globally and, while it’s early days, we’re seeing strong indications that hard seltzers will prove as popular in Western Europe as they have in the U.S.”
Three Fold launched in late 2020 through Revl, Molson Coors’ direct-to-consumer e-commerce site. It is available in three flavors (Red Berries, Tropical and Citrus) and checks in at 4% ABV and 93 calories per 330 mL can. Molson Coors invested £5 million ($6.9 million) in its launch, with a 360-degree advertising campaign and sponsorship of UK-based editions of Tough Mudder, the mud run and obstacle course competition.
Since the launch, Three Fold has gained off-premise retail placements at Morrisons, Bargain Booze and Bestway, with future “listings at multiple national retailers through the course of this year,” according to a press release about the brand’s debut.
Hard seltzer has yet to catch fire in the U.K. as it has in the U.S. Last year, British consumers spent £11.8 million on hard seltzers — roughly the equivalent of $16.3 million — according to a report in The Grocer, a U.K.-based trade publication.
By comparison, that’s nearly as much as American hard seltzer drinkers spent on a single SKU of the country’s second largest hard seltzer brand, Boston Beer’s Truly Citrus Mix Pack ($16.6 million), year-to-date through June 13, according to market research firm IRI. In the 52 weeks that ended June 13, the hard seltzer segment reached $4.39 billion in off-premise sales, according to IRI.
Across the pond, the bubbly beverage reached a household penetration rate of 3.7%, which amounts to about 1 million shoppers, through December 2020, according to Kantar data shared by The Grocer. In the U.S., hard seltzer reached 13.2% household penetration — about 16.6 million shoppers — in the 52 weeks ending May 22, according to data from market research firm NielsenIQ.
In addition to Three Fold, Molson Coors distributes Bodega Bay Hard Seltzer through a deal with founder Charlie Markland in June 2020.
The company has no plans to introduce its top-selling hard seltzer brand, Vizzy, in the U.K. Dollar sales of the Vizzy brand family reached $54.3 million at multioutlet food and convenience stores year-to-date through June 13, according to IRI.
Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, Molson Coors’ second-best selling hard seltzer in the U.S., is available in the U.K. and continental Europe, but sold and distributed by Coca-Cola, which owns the Topo Chico brand and formed a joint venture with Molson Coors to produce and sell the product in the U.S. From its late March launch through June 13, dollar sales of the Topo Chico Hard Seltzer variety pack have reached $23 million at off-premise retailers in the U.S., according to IRI.
Overall, Molson Coors’ portfolio of hard seltzers holds 5.7% of the segment’s market share, according to IRI.
In the last decade, Molson Coors has invested £100 million (roughly $138.4 million) in its historic Burton-on-Trent brewery, which is now powered by 100% renewable energy and has been self-sufficient in carbon dioxide production since 2018, according to the release. The brewery employs more than 1,000 workers.
Work on the new hard seltzer canning line and improvements to the beer and cider packaging lines is slated to begin later this year, with the goal of shipping its first hard seltzer cans in late spring 2022.
“This investment will allow us to scale up at speed and help our customers to rapidly respond to that growing demand from consumers in this quickly emerging category,” Whitehead said in the release.