One of the largest beverage companies in the world could be launching products to take part in one of the fastest-growing beverage categories, hard seltzers.
What Happened: A filing by PepsiCo, Inc. (NYSE: PEP) on June 14 is seeking to use the Rockstar name for beer and hard seltzer, Bloomberg reports.
The move follows the company saying on its third-quarter earnings call that it was exploring alcoholic drinks and would “make a decision in the coming quarters.”
There has been no official announcement from PepsiCo at this time in regards to alcoholic beverages.
Related Link: Stock Wars: Coca-Cola Vs. Pepsi
Why It’s Important: Sales of hard seltzers have rocketed to one of the fastest-growing alcoholic beverages. Hard seltzer sales were $500 million in 2018 and hit over $4 billion in 2020, according to the New York Times.
One of the top-selling hard seltzer brands is Truly, which has helped shares of Boston Beer Company Inc (NYSE: SAM) post a five-year return of 508%, with much of that coming in the last two years.
Pepsi’s largest beverage rival Coca-Cola Co (NYSE: KO) has a partnership with Molson Coors Beverages Co (NYSE: TAP) for a hard seltzer version of Topo Chico, which was a mineral brand acquired by Coca-Cola in 2017.
Beverage industry research firm IWSR expects hard seltzer consumption to triple by 2023.
PEP Price Action: Shares of PepsiCo are down 2.09% to $145.42 on Friday. Shares have traded between $128.05 and $149.27 over the last 52 weeks.
(Image by Steve Buissinne from Pixabay)
(C) 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
