Molson Coors Beverage Company has taken a minority stake in ZenWTR, the sustainably packaged bottled water brand launched earlier this year by serial entrepreneur Lance Collins, the company announced today. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
In a letter sent to its distribution partners, Molson Coors president of emerging growth Pete Marino said the partnership will also include a stake in a new upcoming brand Collins is currently developing.
“We are thrilled about this partnership and this investment signals another step towards our pursuit of growing in new spaces beyond the beer aisle,” Marino said in the letter.
Launched on the West Coast this spring, ZenWTR is a vapor-distilled, alkaline (9.5 pH) water packaged in rPET bottles made using ocean recycled plastic. The packaging was developed by CarbonLITE, a manufacturer of sustainable packaging in which Collins is an investor. In July, the brand named former Soylent chief executive Bryan Crowley as its CEO.
ZenWTR’s current DSD network includes Molson Coors house Columbia Distributing in the Pacific Northwest, as well as Kalil Bottling Co. in Arizona and John Lenore & Co. in Southern California. According to Marino, the brand will now be made available to all Molson Coors distributors outside of regions where ZenWTR has pre-existing contracts.
“There’s no better beverage entrepreneur than Lance Collins,” said Rich McNaughton, VP of portfolio management and non-alc brands for Columbia Distributing, in the letter. “He’s had five world champion brands and he’s ready to make ZenWTR the sixth. Expanding into non-alc brands makes a lot of sense for Molson Coors and they couldn’t be aligning with a better partner than Lance and ZenWTR.”
In an email to BevNET, Collins said he chose to work with Molson Coors in part due to his prior experience working with the company’s DSD houses, including Columbia, Wright Beverage Distributing, Gulf Distributing Holdings and J.J. Taylor Distributing.
“By providing Molson Coors distributors an opportunity — in markets where [ZenWTR] does not currently have distribution — to pitch for the distribution rights, [we] will ensure we build the strongest route to market especially with their increased focus on growing their Non Alc portfolio,” Collins said.
The deal represents yet another addition to the fast growing Molson Coors non-alcoholic beverage portfolio, which last week announced a slate of four new brands developed in coordination with incubator L.A. Libations. The company has also announced new cannabis-infused beverages produced through its partnership with HEXO Corp in Canada and Colorado. Last year, the company released updated packaging for Clearly Kombucha, which it acquired in 2018 as its first foray into the non-alcoholic beverage space.
As it seeks to grow its beyond beer division, Molson Coors has also hired Jamie Wideman, head of sales and marketing for craft spirits at Terlato Wines, as its VP of Non-Alc Innovation, beginning October 19.