Canned Cocktail Pioneer Siponey Plans to Stay Relevant With Sustainability

The canned cocktail industry has matured. But as the ready-to-drink space has grown up, early entrants are facing new challenges after initially overcoming doubts about their viability. Whiskey-focused Siponey Spritz Co. is one canned cocktail pioneer looking to ride the acceptance of RTDs. But the marketplace for respectable booze in a can is now being crowded by large, established spirits brands like Bombay Sapphire and its pre-mixed gin-and-tonics. Is the space still hospitable for upstarts who paved the way for canned cocktails? Founded before RTDs took off during the pandemic, Siponey’s (“sip-OWN-ee”—or simply say “sip honey” really fast) first release arrived in the summer of 2020. It was a period when bars still largely had to adhere to lockdowns and social distancing. Canned cocktails brought cocktails to people’s homes. Halle Berry and The Old Gays Serve Pride and Sip Canned Wine in Vibrant Campaign for Bev Even as the world has reopened, the growth of RTDs hasn’t abated. Pre-batched cocktails, including spirit-based RTDs, were the fastest-growing alcohol beverage category in both revenue and volume in 2021, according to a recent survey by Public Opinion Strategies (POS) and economic data from Discus and IWSR Drinks Market Analysis. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents consider themselves regular or occasional consumers of RTD beverages. Further proof of the validity of the report resides in the numbers: Supplier revenue from premixed cocktails and RTDs rose by 42.3% to $1.6 billion in sales in 2021. In the fall of 2019, Siponey co-founder Amanda Victoria launched the brand alongside her partner in life and business, Joseph Mintz. A former bartender and spirits brand ambassador, Victoria was inspired to start the brand by tapping into her background as an entrepreneur and environmental/social activist since 2005. So far, the company’s products, which include Siponey Royale and the cold brew-based Siponey Café, have seen sales grow 262% in revenue from 2020 to 2021, even as its advertising has remained limited to out-of-home and social media. Today, the company is just shy of 5,000 cases sold. Siponey’s core markets are New York, Florida, Tennessee, Arizona and New Jersey, with availability across 13 states in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. Moreover, Siponey is available to direct-to-consumer nearly nationwide with the exception of Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi and Ohio. Joseph Mintz and Amanda Victoria are the team behind Siponey. Siponey’s marketing is done in-house and focuses on sharing the company’s story and ethos via news outlets, social media, in-store displays, merchandise and growing in-person tastings. The company also spends on out-of-home advertising in areas known for attracting nightlife. The brand's recent “Made for You” campaign was centered on how Siponey was designed with customers’ love of ingredients and the planet in mind. Siponey has been built largely through a community of industry specialists and their endorsements of the brand. The premise is that people trust bartenders, even when they're drinking away from the bar. “When first building Siponey, I had a hunch that the landscape for RTDs would become both saturated and very competitive for market share,” Victoria said. “At that point, I had already been through milestone moments in the alcohol industry, including craft cocktails, vodka and whiskey. "I saw the opportunity to create a more premium RTD as an overdue entry point into equity ownership from my particular experience. Manufacturing and brand building with my background in whiskey and cocktails spanning multi-decades was a natural evolution.” Hurdles and the road ahead Siponey has resisted expanding into other spirit profiles. It’s sticking with its origins, which include using four core ingredients: 4-year-old rye whiskey, locally sourced honey, natural lemon juice and carbonated water. “The intention was to create a household name, known across all of wine and spirits, for sustainable efforts in the world of wine and spirits, as well as the best ingredients and the best tasting can cocktail that we could make,” Victoria said. While Siponey has experienced a series of rewarding firsts, success hasn’t come without hurdles. One obstacle the brand has dealt with is other brands entering the space with the same flavors as Siponey with one difference: larger marketing budgets. “We have seen nearly 10 or so direct knockoffs in-market now, which is extremely frustrating," she said. "As a growing company with customers that love our cocktails, market share is our No. 1 focus. It's unfortunate [that it's] often a pay-to-play scenario across big-box store shelves. I’m afraid customers don’t realize how much of their choice is essentially decided for them by larger parent corporations gobbling up shelf space and dictating what stores should stock.” Fundraising while trailblazing has been challenging. Still, Victoria and Mintz are intent on using natural ingredients while keeping the business rooted in sustainability. Specifically, Siponey has dedicated 2% of its annual profit to honeybee conservation. “When first building Siponey, I had a hunch that the landscape for RTDs would become both saturated and very competitive for market share,” Siponey’s Amanda Victoria said Balanced marketing and ingredients Is the emphasis on sustainability the best message to support an independent RTD business? For larger brands, the pressure from consumers can often be deafening. But a small indie beverage company needs to prove itself if it's to become bigger. For Siponey, sustainability is a way to generate loyalty from discerning consumers. The hope is they will eventually influence others. On a mass market level, canned cocktails offer the imbiber convenience. They’re designed to fit into a person’s busy lifestyle without sacrificing the enjoyment of an adult beverage, having to go to a bar or learning to mix drinks themselves. Stressing “natural” ingredients is one way RTD brands can differentiate themselves. Siponey is premised on bridging the gap between mass market convenience and the natural ingredients that consumers of craft cocktails value. “Consumers want [something] better in cans, and with that I’m hopeful we’ll still see some quality products arise similar to Siponey over the next few years,” Victoria said. “However, when a producer puts something artificial, synthetic and cheap in a can with that all-too-familiar weird aftertaste and full of processed sugar intended to mask the quality of the liquid, it sets the entire category’s potential back." Halle Berry and The Old Gays Serve Pride and Sip Canned Wine in Vibrant Campaign for Bev Overall, cocktails in cans are here to stay, Victoria said. However, despite her optimism about the permanence of RTDs, she offered a caveat to the marketers who may try to be everything to everyone, only to end up watering down their drink. “Anytime you divert too far from the path in terms of extensions and flavors, there needs to be a moment where you scale back,” Victoria said. “We’re going to see a lot of them fall off in the next two to five years. "For better or worse, the ones that will remain standing are the ones that are building with a more intentional, slower burn rather than a quicker opportunity to just get everywhere all at once. So, we’ll see who survives.”

Alcohol Industry News

Early Canned Cocktail Brand Siponey Looks to the Next Phase

As the ready-to-drink category gains acceptance, smaller marketers face new struggles

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