The makers of pouch-packaged alcoholic beverage brand SUNiCE continue to push into alternative formats.
Following the September 2021 launch of resealable alcoholic beverage pouches aimed at legal-drinking-age consumers who grew up on Capri Sun, Kool-Aid Jammers and Hi-C juice boxes, the company is expanding its portfolio with SunShot, a 14%-ABV, 100-calorie, 3 fl. oz. resealable shooter pouch.
The shooters hit independent liquor stores in Pennsylvania and metro New York in November and come in individual flavor boxed 6-packs of Peach Elderflower, Mango Slice, Cinnamon Punch and Spicy Lemon. The 6-packs convert into a tray point-of-sale unit.
SUNiCE and SunShot creator Wyatt Carder told Brewbound that the move into shots was a “natural progression” for the company as consumers gravitate toward higher ABV offerings. Carder said he and SUNiCE co-founders Erik Weller and Simon Thorpe were intrigued by the opportunity of playing in the space with competitors such as Sazerac’s Fireball, party punch maker BeatBox and BuzzBallz, but with a beer/sugar base.
“If you combine those things — unique format with high proof with the beer channel — to us that meant lots of success,” Carder said. “Our feeling is if you go straight beer down the beer channel with something like this, and you’re one of the only ones doing it, you’re probably going to have a pretty good slice of business.”
Both wholesalers and retailers have been receptive, Carder said. In conversations with distributors, the prevailing thought was that they don’t want to miss out on the next big thing in the ready-to-drink market, Carder said. Those comments echoed what consultant Bump Williams has heard from retailers, who are looking to add RTDs to their store shelves. Those products will be cutting into about 20% of the beer shelf set during spring resets, Williams said during last week’s Beer Industry Summit.
SunShot’s launch largely mirrors SUNiCE’s, with a fall soft launch followed by a larger roll out in the spring, Carder said. The slower rollout is allowing the company to test and learn what works in terms of merchandising and pricing, he added.
“This gives us a little bit of time to understand what’s actually working there, and as we grow the distribution out into spring and summer … we’ll be able to put some of those learnings into practice once we get to the marketplace,” Carder said. “When we put this stuff out, we don’t know, is $1.99 the right price? Is $2.99? Do they need to be in the fridge? Can we put them on a countertop? What do they go next to? All of that stuff needs to be learned.”
SunShot’s debut follows a successful 15-month run for SUNiCE (5% ABV, 110 calories, 7g of sugar), the sugar-based, spiked fruit cocktails sold in 10 oz. resealable pouches. The company sold about 25,000 cases and generated around $700,000 in revenue in the period, Carder said.
The company is “not far off” from profitability due to a light overhead, with Carder, Weller and Thorpe making up the whole of the company. The leanness hasn’t allowed for a marketing budget, with organic sales in the brand’s early days.
“We were just getting it out there and getting it on shelves and letting the public decide if they thought it was worth trying and picking up,” Carder said of the last 15 months. “What’s cool about that is that there was no marketing spend against that. It had nothing to do with Facebook ads or Instagram ads or a celebrity or anything like that. It was just, is this product cool?”
The concept of SUNiCE was born from the to-go cocktail culture that emerged during the pandemic, particularly the sales of pouches of alcohol in New York City. The product was adopted by a mix of independents, regional chains and Walmart stores, which provided a cross section of data and insights into the different demographics — urban, suburban, rural — and socioeconomic statuses of its consumer base, Carder explained.
“What we learned is that if it can move in Philadelphia, if it can move in the suburbs of Georgia, and it can move in a Walmart in Tennessee and Arizona, then we’ve got something that that maybe transcends a little bit and can resonate with more than just a millennial or Gen Z or male or female,” he said.
Heading into 2023, SUNiCE is in expansion mode driven by a national mandate from convenience store chain GPM, whose stores include Fas Mart, Shore Stop, Scotchman, Admiral, Breadbox, Young’s, Li’l Cricket, Next Door Store, Village Pantry, Apple Market and Jiffi Stop.
SUNiCE — which was initially available in New York, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Arizona — will expand into Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas.
As 2022 came to a close, Carder said the company had signed about 20 new wholesaler contracts with a mix of Anheuser-Busch and Molson Coors distributors
The biggest opportunity for the company in 2023 will be getting into a mix of grocery and c-store chains as it expands, Carder said.
“The opportunity is going to be quite large for us in 2023, and we’ve got a lot of chain interest this time around,” he said. “The Walmart data helps a lot. Seeing that proof of concept across independents, retail chains and Walmart combined is really good.”