Wings & Arrow, the brand house of Ashland Hard Seltzer and Villager Spirits canned cocktails, has closed a $10 million funding round, which will help support production of its existing and upcoming beyond beer offerings.
Wings & Arrow founder Josh Landan – who also founded San Diego-based Saint Archer Brewing Company (which he sold in 2015 to Molson Coors, and was hibernated earlier this year) – launched the new company in November to bring the staff and structures of Ashland (launched in 2020) and Villager (relaunched as a spirits brand in 2021) together as one entity.
“I knew I had more brands in me,” Landan told Brewbound. “So I formed this because it was crazy to just keep doing separate capital raising and building out separate staffs, when really there would be so much more value in bringing everything together and putting them under one roof.”
Landan equated the approach to that of Boston Beer Company, which instead of launching a “Sam Adams hard seltzer” or other line extensions, created new brands such as Truly Hard Seltzer and Twisted Tea.
“I don’t think people really want [brand] extensions,” he continued. “Most people, when they create their one brand, they go ‘This is the brand I had in me,’ and then create extensions off that. But if you have the ability to create independent businesses, it’s much more exciting and there’s no confusion and you can be authentic to that category, instead of just dipping your toe around with your existing brand.”
The new funding will support packaging and production costs to keep Wings & Arrow’s growth rate steady, rather than relying on sales and marketing needs.
With distribution in California and Arizona, Wings & Arrow is projected to produce 1 million cases (more than 72,580 barrels) across its brands in 2022, according to Landan. That growth will be aided by the launch of two new beyond beer offerings: Mucho Aloha Hard Lemonade and a yet-to-be-announced fourth offering.
Mucho Aloha, an 8% ABV sugar-based hard lemonade, will launch in May in a variety 12-pack and 16 oz. single-serve cans. Two of the hard lemonde’s flavors – Original and Blueberry – will also be available on draft in select locations in Southern California.
Wings & Arrow intends to have a similar on-premise focus with Mucho Aloha as it has had with Ashland. The hard seltzer brand is expected to sell 700,000 cases (more than 50,800 barrels) this year in California, 15% of which will be from draft sales, Landan said.
The fourth Wings & Arrow brand will launch in August and will fill the last “big” subsegment in the beyond beer space after hard seltzer, canned cocktails and hard lemonade. While he did not outwardly confirm the fourth offering, Landan said “tea would be a fabulous guess.”
“There’s one massive player in [the subsegment],” Landan teased. “The independent ones haven’t really been able to take off nationally.”
Landan said this would be the “fourth and final” brand for Wings & Arrow, as four brands is “a lot to manage,” and any “fringe categories” might cannibalize sales in its own portfolio. However, with his tendency to come up with new brands, Landan said “you never know.”
Production of all four brands will be divided among four contract brewing partnerships in Oregon and California. Despite the brands existing under one parent company, Landan said he does not see the need for their own Wings & Arrow facility right now.
“We have four really great partners, and I’ve done the 75,000 sq. ft. brewery,” Landan said. “And if it’s not Saint Archer – and I gotta have a strong emotional connection to jump back into that – we’re pretty well set up in our 5,000 sq. ft. office in Cardiff, a block from the beach.”
In January, Molson Coors halted production and distribution of the Saint Archer brand and announced that Kings & Convicts would acquire its 50,000 sq. ft. San Diego brewery. The location includes a 40-barrel brewhouse, 5-barrel pilot system, cellar, canning line and a 1,200 sq. ft. satellite taproom in Leucadia.
While the latest funding round will not be used for marketing, Landan has had the help of several investors to help market his brands, including professional athletes Jared Goff, Ben Roethlisberger, Paul Rodriguez, Cody Bellinger, Taylor Knox, Eric Koston; actors Adam Devine, Adam Scott, Blake Anderson; musician Chris Lane; lifestyle influencers Caelynn Miller-Keys, Halley Elefante, Lauryn Evarts Bosstick and many more, according to a press release.
Devine – who recently invested in Cann, a Los Angeles-based CBD beverage company – guest-hosted The Ellen Show earlier this year, drinking Villager Spirit’s Cadillac Margarita.
“I didn’t even know he was doing it,” Landan said. “He’s good. He knows what he’s doing.”