Grocerant niche Alcoholic Beverages are a Mix and Match Meal Solution

 

One hallmark of the grocerant niche growth is mix and match meal component bundling.  With 60% of all restaurant meals being order for delivery chain restaurants need to brand their alcoholic beverage offerings and bundle them with a meal or incorporate other branded products into their offering to meet the current unmet need according to Steven Johnson, Grocerant Guru® at Tacoma, WA based Foodservice Solutions®.

Restaurants and hotel guest more and more want a ‘contactless’ experience both when eating inside or for takeout.  Thus, forcing incremental service and staff cuts at many restaurants and hotels.  It’s very hard in most states to sit at a bar and have a drink.  The simple fact is alcoholic beverage sales and profits at many restaurants and hotels are down.

So, how do restaurants and hotels try to recoup some of the lost bar revenue?  Simple grocerant niche Ready-2-Drink cocktails according to Johnson. Recently, Hard Rock International announced a partnership to bring Hard Rock® Premium Hard Seltzer to fans nationwide later this year.

The Hard Rock Premium Hard Seltzer is crafted for music fans in a variety of stand-out options that highlight Hard Rock Cafe’s® most prominent cocktails and fan favorite flavors, with each can featuring the iconic Hard Rock® logo and a guitar symbol. Fans eager to bring home Hard Rock Premium Hard Seltzer can visit select beverage retailers and grocery stores nationwide beginning this holiday season. Ok, you get it. 

Battle for Share of Stomach

What if you are a restaurant or a chain restaurant not a hotel.  Here is an example from Marriott that you can understand easily see a path forward. Dana Pellicano, Marriott’s vice president of F&B Experience, The Americas. Stated Marriott is one hotel chain that is encouraging its properties to make and batch cocktails in-house and add more Ready-2-Drink ‘canned-/packaged drinks, including canned wines. “The pandemic has changed habits and democratized food and drink,” 

Consider this according to Nielsen Premium Panel data, on the retail side, ready-2-drink (RTD) cocktails is the fastest growing spirits category, rising 28% year over year, In the past several months, growth has accelerated even more, to 171%. Ok, you can see the unmet need. 

How do you fill that unmet need?  Not a problem there are companies the ilk of Heineken that have a new har seltzer called Pure Piraña for one. While the trend was already taking off before the coronavirus companies the ilk of White Claw is another great example.

There may be a local player in your city or state as well as there are now more players in the space. And with takeout and to-go orders pushing the demand for portability, the Ready-2-Drink cocktail is a habit now not something new. It is a grocerant niche mix and match meal solution.

Don’t lose alcoholic beverages sales.  Foodservice Solutions® excels at vertical brand product positioning, marketing strategy, and business development specifically identifying, quantifying and qualifying niche opportunity for global foodservice related activity specifically Ready-2-Eat, Heat-N-Eat, Ready-2-Drink fresh prepared food and beverage. Call 1-253-759-7869 today and learn how the 5 P’s of fresh prepared food marketing can Drive Sales at your retail operation.