CORONA, CALIF. — The Monster Beverage Corp. is extending its alcoholic beverage product line with the introduction of Nasty Beast Hard Tea, a beverage with 6% alcohol by volume. The introduction follows the launch of the Beast Unleashed product in 2022.
“If you look at that together with Beast Unleashed, we think that the two of them together are now going to give us an ability to have a presence on shelf so that it won’t be lost with one or two facings,” said Rodney C. Sacks, chairman and co-chief executive officer, during a Jan. 16 business update with securities analysts. “We think it’s going to make a big difference to the whole line.
“We’re putting an emphasis on (the) convenience channel in four 24-oz (cans) for both of those product lines and also for the multipacks in the more traditional and the bigger stores, grocery and the bigger box stores.”
The Nasty Beast product initially will debut in a 12-oz variety, according to the company.
“The 12-pack variety pack, is as we speak, now going out to the initial beer distributors in the network, and it will be — continue to be launched throughout January and into February,” Sacks said. “We are also producing … now building up inventory of the 24-oz single-serve cans for Nasty Beast, and we are going to launch that shortly within the next month or two.”
The new product will be distributed through Canarchy Craft Brewery, which Monster Beverage acquired in January 2022 for $330 million.
The company also provided an update on the Canarchy acquisition and how it has been affected by a slowdown in the craft beer category.
“I don't want there to be any surprises,” said Hilton H. Schlosberg, co-CEO. “There will be included impairment charges relating to certain non-amortizing intangibles that were acquired as part of the Canarchy acquisition (as part of the company’s fourth-quarter results.).”