MillerCoors tries to woo spirits drinkers with alcoholorific cider and beer
As brewers struggled in the U.S., drinks companies were on a roll. This got MillerCoors thinking – and the result is the launch of two high-alcoholic tipples, aimed at men who tend to drink spirits.
The roll-out of Smith & Forge hard cider in early March 2014 followed the February debut of Miller Fortune, a higher-alcohol lager beer. Already, pundits have sneered that Miller Fortune has to prove a hit if it wants to live up to its name and do better than AB-InBev ’s similarly recipeed and much hyped Bud Light Platinum. Platinum was only launched in 2012 to great fanfare and already was down in the double digit figures last year according to estimates.
MillerCoors ’ double push of new products to the younger male demographic – Smith & Forge specifically is targeting 21- to 27-year-old guys – comes because the brewer is desperate to grow in an under-served market, that of males seeking lighter (than spirits) beverage options.
Hence, Miller Fortune is a 6.9 percent ABV lager that is served in a "rocks glass" different from beer glasses, while Smith & Forge is a 6 percent ABV cider, above the average cider alcohol content.
Smith & Forge is not the first cider produced by MillerCoors, the U.S. joint venture between Molson Coors and SABMiller. SABMiller purchased the U.S. Crispin Cider Company in 2012.
Both Miller Fortune and Smith & Forge are placed within the higher-end price range, a segment which shows promising growth prospects. While MillerCoors in 2013 saw declines in the sales of several of its premium light portfolio, including Coors Light and Miller Lite, its portfolio of “crafty beers”, meanwhile, continued to make up a bigger portion of sales. Sales at Tenth and Blake, its craft-style and import division, grew by high-single digits for the full year.
MillerCoors ’ total net sales rose 0.5 percent to USD 7.8 billion in 2013. Domestic net revenue per barrel, excluding contract brewing and company-owned distributor sales, increased 3.4 percent for the full fiscal year 2013.
