Watch Out Truly, Pepsi Could Be Launching A Hard Seltzer Soon

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. 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 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 KO has a partnership with Molson Coors Beverages Co 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)