Page 28 - Food & Drink Magazine April 2021

BEVERAGE BUSINESS
The fizz is here to stay
however, the focus is more on what products to buy. What we are seeing are retailers not just trying these craft products but repeatedly purchasing them.
Of the three hundred suppliers currently on the platform, the dozen or so Australian-made seltzer brands have climbed to the top five per cent of best-selling products in just six months. That’s on the back of some exponential growth we had seen earlier in the year when throughout January order volumes for Aussie seltzer brands grew 1.5 times every week.
From what we’re witnessing, the taste and quality of independent Aussie products is resonating more with consumers than some of your bigger Goliath brands, and we’re lucky to have a great range of independents on the platform including Wayward Brewing (W Seltzer), Hop Nation (Ray Seltzer), Modus Operandi (Saintly Seltzer) and Dad & Dave’s (Wildspirit Alcoholic Sparkling Water).
We’re also working with a new wave of Aussie-owned dedicated seltzer brands like FELLR, Delvi Sparkling Alcoholic Seltzer, Wavee Hard Seltzer and Australian Seltzer Co. who are all very well received in the market.
LOW TO NO ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE TRENDS Similar to seltzer, there has been concerted marketing spend from the big established players to educate consumers on the no and low alcohol category as they introduce non-alcoholic versions of their existing beverages. But like seltzers, many independent craft producers are the beneficiaries of this increased consumer awareness – as demonstrated by the sales growth of non-alc craft products on Kaddy.
In the last three months of 2020, leading up to the Christmas and holiday period, the volume of craft non- alcoholic products sold through our channel grew tenfold. This amount of growth was striking because not only were we approaching the ‘silly season’, it
The buzz beverage of 2020 was seltzer. With summer behind us and COVID-19 restrictions easing, the co-founder of B2B beverage marketplace Kaddy Rich Coombes provides insights about the category’s success.
ABOVE: For Hop Nation, its seltzer ’Ray was its fastest growing product line in the 2020/21 summer.
OPPOSITE: In February, Wayward Brewing shipped as many cartons of W Seltzer as its core beer range.
THE year is in full swing and so far, we have seen some exciting trends emerge within the alcoholic beverages industry. As consumer preferences continuously evolve, with more emphasis placed on health & wellness, the industry has been forced to innovate and adapt.
As a result, the rise of seltzers and non-alcoholic beverages are two of the biggest growth categories we are seeing on the Kaddy platform – driven, in most part, by consumer demand for healthier alternatives to your more traditional beer, wine and cider. Here is what we’re seeing and why we don’t see these two ‘low and non-alc’ movements as simply a fad that will fade out.
INDEPENDENT AND AUSSIE MADE
The initial growth and buzz of the seltzer category last year was driven by a solid marketing effort from some of the industry’s big players, such as White Claw and Smirnoff.
Off the back of this, we then saw a few Australian-owned and independent craft brands hit the market that have been able to ride the huge wave of interest in the category, and now in the wake, are continuing to thrive.
If you look back only six months ago, venue operators and bottle shops were faced with the challenge of how to get their hands on a variety of seltzer products. Today,
28 | Food&Drink business | April 2021 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au