Surfside hits 1m cases in second year

Canned cocktails are popular, water is wet, but as hard seltzers decline, spirits-based RTDs seem to be taking over the canned category – and a brand called Surfside has skyrocketed to the front of this trend. The brand managed to sell 1.3 million cases in 2023, in just its second year on shelves, boasting a growth of 563% from its debut year. It did all this despite only being available in seven US states at the start of 2023, and now, mid-2024, it is found in 42. Surfside has four vodka teas and four vodka lemonades that comprise variety packs. The expressions are made up of premium vodka, real tea, and have only 100 calories and two grams of sugar. The flavours range from black cherry lemonade to raspberry iced tea.

In a market as saturated as the ready-to-drink (RTD) one, Philadelphia native and co-founder Clement Pappas said he spotted a gap in terms of what’s been offered. “There were two kinds of RTDs being offered,” he explained. “There’s a shit tonne of vodka sodas on the one side, and then there are these fancy, bartender-grade style of cocktails. During Covid, when you couldn’t get that stuff, everyone was like ‘we’re gonna take all these different cocktail strength products and put them in a can’. For example you could get a Manhattan in a can at 13-14% ABV.” With big brands like White Claw and Truly dominating malt-based canned alcoholic beverages, Papas saw scope on the spirits based-side, in the 4.5% ABV range, particularly where people are seeking “beer substitutes”.

‘Sessionable’ drinking

“We thought tea and lemonade, particularly in the US, are very popular as a non-alcoholic drink. There are a bunch of flavoured malt beverage products out there that have been out there for a while and do quite well, but it felt like this wasn’t an obvious thing,” he continued. “It’s kind of like a beer, so it’s pretty drinkable. You can drink a lot of them. It’s not carbonated and it’s a really premium liquid. Honestly, it doesn’t feel like you’re drinking an alcoholic beverage.”

Pappas credits his business partner and one of his co-founders, Matt Quigley, for coming up with the branding idea, which has a retro surfer feel that’s a bit of a throwback to the 70s and 80s. Something that he says “has come back into style”.

In terms of where the brand has caught on, Pappas says that Surfside has done very well in outdoor sport, especially golf courses and baseball – sites where beer is normally the drink of choice. Surfside has marketing sponsorships with five teams in Major League Baseball: Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, Cleaveland Guardians (who changed their name recently) and the Atlanta Braves. The brand is also at around 90 stadiums for minor league teams.

Pappas calls baseball “one of our big swings”. “We have found, for example, in Philly, which is a major market, that we are actually the number one bev-alc consumed in the whole stadium,” he added.

“It fits with the occasion. For baseball, they have tweaked the rules, but they are generally long games, or there’s a lot games, they’re in the summer and it’s hot outside, obviously. It just kind of really goes with the occasion, right? Its light, refreshing iced tea. You’re out at the hot game, you’re sitting out in the sun for a few hours. It’s really really refreshing, experiential and we just really like how the experience ties into our brand.”

Rapidly evolving

While High Noon stands tall above the rest of spirits-based RTDs in the States with 21.4m cases sold last year, Pappas wants Surfside to be right up there with them and is projecting the brand to reach more than 4m cases this year. “We think we are going to be number two or darn close – it’s a tall task to be bigger than High Noon, but we’ll find out in time. We’ll certainly push for it and we see numbers and velocity numbers that give us optimism to think that we can be at that level.”

For the future, Pappas says he and the team have “pretty aggressive plans”. The brand launched in Florida and New York last year, which he sees as “huge” markets with tremendous traction. Virginia and Ohio too, are “emerging as very strong markets”. The brand has also chosen to go through the beer distribution network, rather than the wine and spirits one, as Pappas says “the beer guys are really looking for a winner in the spirits-based category because they don’t have the big winning brand yet”, like High Noon, which is owned by Gallo.

International markets such as Canada, the Caribbean and possibly Mexico will be looked into for the future, but for now Pappas says that before crossing oceans they still have a lot to cover in the US. Pappas also acknowledged that in 10 years there will probably be a shake-out once the category has sorted itself out and stabilised, as its “still in its in a real crazy state of evolution and flux”.

However, he believes Surfside and premium vodka-based tea and lemonade will be a major player in any event: “When we put it out there it was like hot cakes, we thought we really cracked the code. Let’s go get it and make it a national brand because everybody else is going to be jumping into this. We have an opportunity here with what we put together to really own this and be first to market.”