‘Institutional hesitancy’ fades as soft drinks brand owners open up to co-branded RTDs

When asked by Global Drinks Intel for his views on the prospects for further co-brands moving forward, Malandrakis said: “Historically, there had been an institutional hesitancy (among soft drinks brand owners) to enter the alcohol space, with companies preferring to focus within their respective lanes. The fear was the risk of causing reputational damage.

“Obviously,” he continued, “this hasn’t been the case – Nobody really cares if Coca-Cola creates a co-branded alcoholic RTD. So, I think things are changing now; they’re in the process of testing the ground to see how successful soft drinks brands can be in alcoholic RTDs.

“In the next couple of years, I expect to see many more of these co-branded RTDs compared to what we saw a couple of years ago. I don’t expect to see runaway success, but the current co-brands are doing pretty well.”

Elsewhere in his presentation, Malandrakis connected the different “waves” of RTD growth to different generations; the ‘wine coolers’ appealed to Baby Boomers, he noted, while ‘alcopops’ proved popular with Generation X, and hard seltzers drew in Millennials.