ATLANTA — It may take The Coca-Cola Co. seven to 10 years to determine if its foray into the ready-to-drink alcohol market is scalable. An early learning after only a few years in the market is that the company’s success will be based on a variety of products rather than one overwhelmingly successful product.
“I don’t think there’s going to be one killer SKU (stock-keeping unit) that is 50% of the market,” said James Robert B. Quincey, chairman and chief executive officer, on Oct. 23 during a conference call to discuss third-quarter financial results. “I think it’s going to be much more — the alcohol industry has more variety and more variety-seeking behaviors.”
Quincey added that in the markets around the world where alcohol-based ready-to-drink beverages have a meaningful percentage of the market relative to beer, the characteristic that stands out is the variety of products in the portfolio.
To date, Coca-Cola has several products in the market ranging from Topo Chico Hard Seltzer, Simply Spiked in partnership with the Molson Coors Beverage Co., Fresca branded cocktails with Constellation Brands, Inc., Jack and Coke in partnership with Brown-Forman’s Jack Daniel’s brand, and, most recently, Bacardi and Coke with Bacardi Ltd.
Announced in late September, the Bacardi Mixed with Coca-Cola ready-to-drink beverage will start rolling out in 2025 to select European markets and Mexico.
“… If you look back at the beverage industry, the most successful of any brands, it was very hard to tell whether we’re really breaking through to scale until about year 7 and it took at least till year 10 to get scale and often much longer,” Quincey said. “So, a few years is still relatively early days in terms of really building out something at scale.”
