Can you buy White Claw Stock?

It’s hard to look on social media this summer and not see someone reaching for a can of the tingling adult drink called White Claw. When White Claw announced that it would launch a new, higher ABV strain called White Claw Surge, it was easy to feel that the brand was heralding the start of summer.

White Claw: Company Profile

Let’s dive into what White Claw is and if you can you buy White Claw stock.

What is White Claw?

White Claw began in 2016 as a line of canned hard seltzers for adults. Now, it’s a privately owned company that produces a number of alcohol products, including its flagship product – White Claw Hard Seltzer.

White Claw’s Hard Seltzer is made with a mixture of seltzer water and gluten-free alcohol-base with fruit flavor.

White Claw’s Appeal

The drink is popular in cities where it’s distributed, such as New York City, Austin, etc. The love affair people have with this drink seems to be tied to its stark visual cues: The frosty white color and its place in a can that looks like it’s straight out of a water park.

But its appeal goes beyond the visual: Its taste is described as “a vibrant fusion of natural flavors with just a subtle hint of carbonation.” The drink has become so popular in both bars and in social media that some people in the business have begun to say White Claw may be a “hype” drink – one with short-term popularity because it appeals to a certain set of consumers.

The company is now one of the most talked about drinks on social media sites. Will this drink, which has been around since 2016, fade away anytime soon? Or are the folks at White Claw onto something big?

The Story of White Claw

White Claw was first created by Mark Anthony Brands, a company that creates craft beverage brands for the United States market.

Anthony von Mandl is behind the company that made White Claw one of the fastest-growing beverage brands in history. He began his career in the 1970s selling wine from the trunk of his car before inventing Mike’s Lemonade in 1996. He has made a fortune creating alcoholic beverages before launching White Claw in 2016, with the goal of creating products that would appeal to a younger generation of consumers.

Von Mandl, along with his team, created White Claw after noting that his own children and other young adults were drinking more wine than spirits. He believed that people wanted an alternative to beer and cocktails, something that was lower in calories and offered a crisp taste. Von Mandl and his team found inspiration for White Claw in stories about Mexican resort towns, where bartenders would use local fruit to flavor alcoholic seltzers as an alternative to cocktails.

The product was tested at several restaurants before it hit the market as a canned beverage with 4% ABV (alcohol by volume) in 2016. The White Claw venture has been von Mandl’s biggest gamble, but it’s paid off so far.

He has built White Claw into an empire that achieved 1 billion US dollars (USD) in sales across the United States and Canada in less than two years after its initial launch in 2016.

Why is White Claw Popular?

It comes in aluminium cans and is easy to drink at parties and on the beach. The popularity of White Claws with consumers drove the brand to sell them, and Von Mandl brought in his experience and expertise to spark the phenomenon.

Von Mandl has described White Claw as an iconic global brand and compared it to legacy companies like Starbucks in the National Beer Wholesaler Associations annual meeting.

White Claw is America’s best-selling Hard Seltzer, and industry analysts expect rivals like Spiked Seltzer, another brand, to break its dominance. 

Mark Anthony Brands

Mark Anthony Brands International is part of the Mark Anthony Group of companies. It was founded in 1972 and is located in Dublin, Ireland and is one of North America’s most successful and diversified private beverage companies. The company’s portfolio includes several products in the alcohol beverage sector. 

Before launching White Claw, Von Mandl had launched Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Mike’s Harder, and Cayman Jack, and he has built some of the best wineries in the world. He has a talent for creating compelling stories to sell his products.

He started the company as a one-person business and has grown it to the largest RTD (ready to drink) company in North America and the fourth largest in the world. 

The appeal of Hard Seltzer Brands

A flood of new brands have entered the Hard Seltzer market. Hard Seltzer appeals to alcohol drinkers who are becoming more and more concerned about health and wellness and looking to reduce their alcohol consumption. It is gaining popularity among younger, high-income people, especially women. Consumers are looking for refreshing alternatives that are better for them.

White Claw Competitors

A growing range of top Seltzer brands capture a market share of wine, spirits, and beer, transforming America’s drinking culture and beverage companies. Four Loko, an alcoholic beverage line popular with millennials, appears to have bucked the trend of hard seltzers this summer, with their seltzers having a higher alcohol content than their main competitors.

White Claw is one among several hard seltzers on the market, with competitors such as Boston Beer’s Truly, Bon & Viv Spiked Seltzer luring consumers. Boston Beer relies on Truly for its growth, as sales of its flagship product Samuel Adams lager continues to slump. Anheuser-Busch is launching a drink with Bud Light branding, the Bud Light Seltzer. There is increased competition in the spiked seltzer category due to the sudden popularity of these beverages.

The Success of White Claw

White Claw, the best-selling brand of alcoholic hard seltzer, has snowballed in popularity in the last two years and has become a favorite in the U.S. beverage industry, mainly among young people. According to market data and growth projections, the Hard seltzer market is expected to become a $2.5B market in 2020, a 35% increase from the $1.8B market in 2020.

Since launching in 2016, White Claw has become the most ubiquitous brand on the market. It has seen year-over-year growth in its sales and has stayed as the leading hard seltzer brand.

The 100-calorie treat with two-gram carbohydrates and five per cent alcohol now accounts for more than half of the hard seltzer market share.

In 2019, the sparkling adult drink White Claw even experienced a surge in popularity, so much so that the brand announced a nationwide shortage of the drink in September due to increased demand exceeding supply. White Claw accounted for nearly half of all hard seltzer sales in the US.

White Claw has ridden a wave of success, including a deluge of memes, Instagram photos, YouTube videos, outrageous drinking contests, T-shirts, and Halloween costumes. The question now is whether it will remain the top seller. 

The brand’s success is because of the appeal of hard seltzer in general and increased demand from health-conscious consumers.

It is marketed as natural, low in carbohydrates, and gluten-free, while many Seltzer brands advertise low calorie and low sugar.

White Claw is the drink of the summer among millennials and has outsold every craft beer in the U.S. It has adapted itself for more health-conscious drinkers by dropping the sweetness and calories.

White Claw has 5% alcohol by volume, about the same as most beers. It is perceived as healthy and favored by those who want alcohol with low calories without excess ingredients. A 12-pack of White Claw retails for $15, the same as a 12-pack of local light beer. 

White Claw Surge, the new seltzer with high alcohol content launched in April 2021, comes in the flavors cranberry and blood orange. It comes with eight per cent alcohol content, three per cent higher than White Claw’s classic seltzer.

In addition to Surge, the brand also released three new flavors of the brand’s original Hard Seltzer product, which is sold in 12-ounce cans at 5% ABV.

White Claw also introduces three new flavors of its traditional hard seltzer, including mango, strawberry, pineapple and blackberry. 

Can you buy White Claw Stock?

No, you cannot buy White Claw stock right now. You would have to wait until White Claw spins off from its parent company Mark Anthony Brands International, to invest in White Claw.

In 2021, White Claw had sales of $2 billion, while Truly, the hard seltzer from Boston Beer Company had $956 million in retail sales. The Hard Seltzer Brands playing in the market is constantly evolving.

In 2021, several celebrities have already launched their spiked seltzer brands. The market is getting more crowded, and hard seltzer isn’t going anywhere. White Claw has launched in 5 international markets, with a further ten planned for 2021.

White Claw stock price

White Claw is a private brand, it doesn’t have a stock price. White Claw would have to be listed on the stock exchange to be traded publicly.

Alternatives to Investing in White Claw

Although you can’t invest in White Claw stock right now, you can consider investing in the following alternatives to White Claw.

• Boston Beer (SAM) which owns Truly Hard Seltzer
• Anheuser-Busch
• Pepsi
• Coca Cola

Final Thoughts

It doesn’t look like White Claw will go public anytime soon, but it will be a stock to look out for if it does.