Hemp THC Spirits Player Nowadays Expands Into RTDs
October 1, 2024California’s Nowadays has entered the hemp-derived THC cocktail space with a new line of 5-mg. RTDs. The expansion adds the first canned options from the company, which previously specialized in cannabis-infused non-alcoholic spirits, designed for mixing and sipping. The cocktails soft-launched via the brand’s website in late August before adding retail distribution early in September.
The company is bullish on the new products, with CEO and co-founder Justin Tidwell telling SND that early response from consumers and retailers has been extremely positive. “We made a pretty massive production run for a new brand and a new product,” he says. “We produced over two million cans on our first run. We had a feeling that this is going to be a hit. Luckily for us, we’re already moving towards another reorder.”
The new canned cocktails come in four flavors—Original, Spicy Lime, Citrus, and Berry—all at 5-mg. THC and fewer than 25 calories per can. At retail, Tidwell says that Nowadays is doing well among independent stores, with roughly 80% of Nowadays’ accounts coming from small businesses. In terms of chains, Tidwell points to Top 10 Liquors in Minnesota and 7-11 in Florida and across the U.S. as strong retail partners. On the distribution front, Nowadays counts Badger Liquor in Wisconsin, the AB network (including Southern Eagle) in Florida, and Krey Distributing in Missouri, among others. “In Q1 of this year, we were at roughly 1,000 thousand stores. We’ve already surpassed 5,000 stores here in September,” Tidwell notes.
At retail, Tidwell says the new cocktails are often merchandized alongside the infused spirit, with the brand’s shot-sized servings a particular favorite for retailers. “We’ve built a robust distribution network at this point, and we offered the cocktails to our current distributors,” he says. “With the success they’ve seen with Nowadays and our spirit products, they just rolled the cocktails right into the current distribution footprint.
“We go in these stores and we’re getting usually top 1%, if not number-one pull-through from a THC beverage perspective,” Tidwell continues. “We’ve been a DTC-led brand here in 2024, but we see going into 2025 that the revenue from retail is going to start to flip and the wholesale part of the business is really going to start to dominate.”
Looking ahead, Tidwell says Nowadays will add 10-mg. THC cocktails to its lineup, responding to demand from consumers and the trade. “We’re shipping over 20,000 direct-to-consumer orders a month,” he says. “We can see consumer tendencies firsthand. What we see is consumers usually start low, they dip their toe in with that low-dose product, then they move their way up the ladder.”
While Nowadays is high on its new cocktails, the core of the business remains in the infused spirit. Tidwell says that the infused spirits will make up roughly 80% of the company’s revenue for 2024. “The rebuy on those products is incredible. I think the big thing is that people get the option to customize their cannabis experience,” he says. “Those have been our flagship products. I think they will continue to be, and we’re always going to be spirit-focused, but we want to give consumers the option to choose other products.”—Shane English
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