Dive Brief:
- Molson Coors is bringing back Keystone Ice as it looks to reinvigorate its value beers.
- Molson Coors discontinued Keystone Ice in 2021 as it prioritized premium brews.The company is relaunching the brand in select markets as part of a push to broaden the offerings in its portfolio.
- Reintroducing Keystone Ice was well received by Molson Coors’ network, the beer maker said during its Q1 earnings call last week. Still, CEO Rahul Goyal said there is work to be done to boost the company's core value brands, which include Keystone and Miller High Life.
Dive Insight:
Molson Coors has been rapidly updating its portfolio to keep pace with changing consumer preferences, but most of the work has focused on nonalcoholic and beyond beer. The reintroduction of Keystone Ice signals the beer maker is not losing sight of its core beer business.
The beer giant is helping to boost its value brands by focusing on particular geographies where they have close followings. Molson Coors is additionally launching the Keystone apple flavor ahead of the summer season, and those results are pacing ahead of expectations, Goyal said.
“We have a few things in the pipeline that we've announced with our network to make sure we can slow down the leaky bucket in a way for our value part of the portfolio,” Goyal said of Keystone in the call.
Relaunching an ice-brewed beer, which tends to have higher alcohol content, could bring younger consumers back to Keystone as they look for affordable drinks with high ABVs. Goyal said that rebuilding value beers, however, will be a “long-term journey” and the Keystone Light brand in particular “needs some attention.”
“How we invest behind these brands, how we execute behind these brands is very different than how we think of Coors Light and Miller Lite,” Goyal said.
