The list of non-alcoholic beverage producers seeking to cash in on the $4.5 billion hard seltzer segment has grown a little longer.
PepsiCo filed an application with the U.S Patent and Trademark Office to trademark its Rockstar brand in the beer and “alcoholic fruit cocktail drinks; alcoholic malt beverages, except beers; hard seltzer” categories on June 14.
Intellectual property lawyer Josh Gerben noted the application on his Twitter account, Bloomberg reported.
Pepsico has filed a new trademark application for its ROCKSTAR brand (the energy drink).
In the USPTO filing (made on June 14th) Pepsico says it now plans to sell ROCKSTAR-branded beer and hard seltzer.
Coming to stores near you soon…#Pepsi pic.twitter.com/CAqcdHthM0
— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) June 18, 2021
A Rockstar-branded beer, flavored malt beverage or hard seltzer wouldn’t mark the first time an energy drink producer waded into the beverage alcohol space in recent months.
In April, Bang Energy LLC rolled out its MIXX Hard Seltzer. Energy drink maker Monster has also teased a foray into bev-alc, but has not yet released a product or even details of a potential offering.
Meanwhile, several other non-alcoholic beverage makers have forged partnerships with bev-alc players or gone it alone in the hard seltzer space. This past March saw the launch of Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, a joint venture between Molson Coors Beverage Company and Coca-Cola, which owns the Topo Chico brand. Massachusetts-based sparkling water producer Spindrift debuted Spindrift Spiked hard seltzer in April. Heineken USA and AriZona Iced Tea-maker Hornell Brewing joined forces to launch SunRise Hard Seltzer earlier this year. Sonic Drive-In and Oklahoma-based COOP Ale Works released a line of co-branded hard seltzers last month in flavors modeled after the fast-food giant’s popular soft drinks.
In 2020, Talking Rain launched the Sparkling Ice Spiked hard seltzer line. In 2019, Harpoon-maker Mass. Bay Brewing paired up with Massachusetts-based Polar Beverages to produce Arctic Chill Hard Seltzer.
PepsiCo struck a deal to acquire Rockstar Energy for $3.85 billion in March 2020, uniting the two companies after a decade-long distribution partnership.
During the company’s third-quarter 2020 earnings conference call for investors last October, CEO Ramon L. Laguarta said the company was weighing its options before diving into beverage alcohol, because “given the three-tier system, it’s not obvious how you capture a lot of value.”
“Obviously, we look at every opportunity, right, there is in the industry — and a couple of years ago, it was CBD, now it’s more alcohol,” he said. “So we get a lot of — a lot of opportunities in front of us. Of course, we’re looking at all of them. And of course we have people that are thinking more long-term versus the very immediate 2021.
“So we’re reflecting, we’re thinking what are the best options, and we will make decisions in the coming quarters whether this is an area where PepsiCo wants to play,” Laguarta continued.
Market research firm NielsenIQ reported that hard seltzer off-premise dollar sales are up +28.7% year-to-date through June 5. Still, the segment’s dollar share of the overall beer category stands at 9.6% year-to-date, an increase of +2.2%, and has climbed to 11.3% over the last four weeks, an increase of +1.7%.
Requests for comment from PepsiCo were unreturned.