USA – Energy drinks giant Monster Beverage is entering the alcohol market with the acquisition of craft beer and hard seltzer maker, CANarchy Craft Brewery Collective.
The US$330 million deal includes a fully-fledged brewery and several alcohol brands including Cigar City, Oskar Blues, Deep Ellum, Perrin Brewing, Squatters, and Wasatch.
CANarchy’s restaurants are however not part of the transaction, a statement from the Corona, California-based company said.
Monster Beverage says the acquisition won’t affect the organizational structure of its existing energy drink business but will provide a springboard from which to enter the alcoholic beverage sector
Monster’s vice chairman and co-CEO, Hilton Schlosberg, said: “The acquisition will provide us with a fully in-place infrastructure, including people, distribution and licenses, along with alcoholic beverage development expertise and manufacturing capabilities in this industry.”
Rodney Sacks, Monster’s chairman and co-CEO, noted that the addition of CANarchy and its brands to the Monster beverage portfolio represents an excellent opportunity to further grow already robust product offerings.
“We are excited to build and expand upon CANarchy’s existing brands with innovative new products,” Sacks added.
The deal extends the trend of soft-drink companies branching out to the alcohol space as traditional boundaries between the categories rapidly blur.
Coca-Cola has tied up with brewer Constellation Brands Inc to launch Fresca-branded ready-to-drink cocktails, while rival PepsiCo Inc has partnered with Boston Beer Co to launch a Mountain Dew-branded alcoholic beverage.
CANarchy supplies craft beverages throughout the United States and 20 countries and U.S. territories and has seven manufacturing locations and 900 employees, according to its website.
CANarchy’s CEO, Tony Short, said: “We look forward to capitalising on the combined expertise of Monster and CANarchy to further strengthen our current alcoholic product offerings, expand our product portfolio to meet the ever-changing needs of our customers and to grow our business”.
Acquisition of craft beer, however, businesses does not guarantee beverage companies success, as multinational drink and brewing company Molson Coors painfully found out.
The company Colorado headquartered company recently walked away from San Diego’s Saint Archer Brewery after seven years — pulling the brand from store shelves and selling the brewery and local taprooms to Kings & Convicts, the owner of Ballast Point.
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