Twisted Tea will expand to remaining 13 states in March completing a national rollout first attempted a decade ago.
“We’re a brewer. How do you make tea? You brew it in a kettle,” Boston Beer Co. founder Jim Koch told the Boston Herald.
Koch, founder the Boston Beer Co., brewers of Samuel Adams beer, told the newspaper he will be pouring more alcoholic iced tea and hard cider this year.
The growth rate of non-beer products has actually outpaced beer, he said. The brewer also will go coast to coast with its Angry Orchard cider, a premium product introduced quietly last year in New England, New York, Maryland and Denver.
The expansion is third attempt at a national rollout for Twisted Tea. The first two expansions in the early 2000s “failed miserably,” according to Boston Beer CEO Martin Roper.
“We finally sort of worked out how to nurture a brand in some pockets and grow it out to a national (market),” Roper told analysts on a conference call this week.
The company has sold HardCore Cider, a more traditional English cider, since 1997. Koch said Angry Orchard — available in “traditional dry,” “crisp apple” and “apple ginger” styles — has a more fruit-forward, wine kind of flavor profile.
Boston Beer Co. reported its annual earnings increased 32 percent to $66 million, while revenue rose 10 percent to $558 million. Still, the company has had a harder time keeping ahead of competitors in the cut-throat craft beer category over the past few years.
“It’s fair to say that in that time period, we have struggled to maintain our share of tap handles and share of new shelf space,” Roper said. “It’s what Jim and I spend most of our time on.”
Koch said cider will always be a niche product. “It’s never going to be that big, which is good, because we can’t compete with these big national companies,” he said. “Even with beer, this past year we finally got to 1 percent of the U.S. beer market — after 28 years.”
Source: Boston Herald