Monster’s foray into beverage-alcohol is expanding, as the energy drink maker plans to leverage its early success in flavored malt beverages with the launch of Nasty Beast hard iced tea, company leaders shared during the company’s annual shareholder meeting held Thursday.
Nasty Beast will check in at 6% ABV and come in four flavors, per Goldman Sachs analyst Bonnie Herzog. The new line of hard teas will leverage branding from Monster’s first FMB, The Beast Unleashed, to give it a “billboard effect” when it hits shelves later this year, Herzog added.
Company execs didn’t rule out more alcoholic options in its future pipeline.
The move puts Monster in a high-growth segment within FMBs; hard tea increased dollar sales +38.7% YTD, to nearly $385 million, now accounting for 2.3% share of total beer dollar sales in NIQ-tracked channels. Across all outlets (on- and off-premise), dollar sales for hard tea have improved +31% YTD versus 2022, according to data shared by Bump Williams Consulting (BWC).
Monster will join another non-alcoholic beverage juggernaut, AriZona, in launching a hard tea, and trying to chip away at industry leader Twisted Tea, from Boston Beer Company.
Boston Beer’s Twisted Tea dominates hard tea, accounting for 91% of subsegment’s sales in NIQ-tracked off-premise channels (through May 13), according to BWC. Through Q1 2023, Twisted Tea accounted for 27% of total FMB sales in off-premise channels, increasing dollar sales +34% year-over-year (YoY) in the quarter, according to Boston Beer’s Q1 earnings report.
AriZona’s hard tea entry, under the AriZona Premium Spiked Beverage name, is sold in 22 oz. single-serve cans (MSRP $3.49 per can) in three flavors – Lemon, Peach, and Green Tea with Ginseng flavor and honey – each with 5% ABV.
The hard tea is now available in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Florida, Vermont, Ohio, Massachusetts, Georgia, and Illinois, with additional states on the way.
Back to Monster, Nasty Beast is piggybacking off the launch of The Beast Unleashed, which company execs say has “met initial internal expectations” and is currently distributed in around 40% of the country with a reach of two-thirds of the population.
“Overall, we’re very encouraged by today’s announcement and expect that Nasty Beast could ultimately prove to be incremental to Monster’s portfolio given it will compete directly with Twisted Tea (which owns the market) in a fast-growing category – a potential negative for SAM,” Herzog wrote.
Monster’s Alcohol Brands segment – comprising The Beast Unleashed and various brands acquired through its 2022 purchase of the CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective – grew net sales 204.4% ($46.3 million) YoY, with $20.5 million coming in Q1 2023.