- White Claw and Truly still dominate the hard seltzer market.
- Analysts say the multi-billion dollar industry is due for a shakeup with dozens of brands.
- Bud Light Seltzer has shot into third place, though it is much younger than the top two brands.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Hard seltzer brands are gearing up for a big summer, and the major players have more competition than ever.
Sales are expected to peak around the July 4 holiday, Instacart trend expert Laurentia Romaniuk said. "The hard seltzer craze shows no sign of slowing down this summer…Instacart marketplace buying trends suggest that hard seltzer sales will reach a projected all-time high ahead of Independence Day."
White Claw and Truly still dominate the market as go-to hard seltzers, but newer brands could take some of that market share this summer. And as new brands enter the category, experts predict a "shakeout" between classics and newcomers, with Truly and White Claw likely to remain on top, according to Winsight Grocery Business.
Alcohol sales were up in 2020 as Americans stayed home during the pandemic, and hard seltzers led the growth. Overall alcohol sales rose about 2% in 2020, while ready-to-drink sales including seltzers and canned cocktails rose 43%, IWSR Drinks Market Analysis found.
Alcoholic seltzers are now a multi-billion dollar industry, with over $4.5 billion in sales over the 52 week period ending on May 22, according to NielsenIQ data shared with Insider. Sales are up 80% over the same period in the previous year, which was itself a major increase from an industry that did only about $39 million in sales in 2017.
These are some of the top hard seltzer brands to know.
White Claw
White Claw dominates the hard seltzer market, which has exploded over the past few years. In 2019, retailers couldn't keep White Claw in stock, and the manufacturer was "working around the clock" to increase inventory. That same year, White Claw had a comfortable 58% market share.
Though the market is more crowded now than it was in 2019, White Claw and Truly together hold about 75% of the market, Nielsen IQ analyst Greg Doonan told Insider.
For summer 2021, White Claw introduced Surge, a new higher alcohol content seltzer.
Truly
After White Claw, Truly is the other dominant seltzer brand that was early to market. It had a 26% market share in 2019, and now captures nearly three-quarters of hard seltzers sales along with White Claw.
Truly is made by The Boston Beer Company, which also produces Samuel Adams beer and Angry Orchard hard ciders. So far, Truly has held onto the number two spot by continually introducing new flavors and reformulating the recipe to compete with White Claw. It also followed in the bigger brand's footsteps by introducing Truly Extra, a higher alcohol content seltzer.
Bud Light
Anheuser-Busch InBev launched Bud Light Seltzer in January 2020 with a $100 million investment, and it became the third biggest brand with 9% market share by summer 2020.
Instacart lists Bud Light Seltzer as the third best performing seltzer on the platform, too.
By the end of 2020, AB InBev was seeing major success despite being relatively late to the seltzer game. "That's how we plan to play the game here as well. We were not the first, but we expect to be the largest," CMO Marcel Marcondes told Reuters, saying that he expects this growth to take years.
White Claw, Truly, and Bud Light are the big three players in the hard seltzer world, but new brands are popping up and growing. Here are three to keep an eye on.
Cacti
Cacti
Cacti is hard seltzer made with blue agave from Mexico, produced by Travis Scott and Anheuser-Busch.
Rapper Travis Scott's involvement adds immediate buzz to the seltzer, as the celebrity behind McDonald's hugely successful Travis Scott meal that led to some locations running out of Big Mac ingredients. Some of that excitement clearly transferred over to Cacti, which sold out its entire inventory in just 12 hours after an ad during the Grammy's.
"CACTI is a decent hard seltzer with a unique aftertaste that could make it a 'must have' beverage in summer 2021" Ben Blanchet wrote in a review for Insider.
Vizzy
Vizzy hard seltzer, produced by Coors, was mentioned by Nielsen analyst Danelle Kosmal as one to keep an eye on.
In December 2020, Coors said that it was increasing seltzer production capacity by 400%, and it now has several brands on shelves, including Coors Seltzer, Blue Moon LightSky, and is the exclusive US manufacturer of Topo Chico hard seltzer.
Vizzy comes in different fruity flavors in variety packs, and advertises itself as containing vitamin C and antioxidants.
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