American pharmaceutical, cannabis, and consumer packaged goods company Tilray stunned the craft beer community in August 2023 when it purchased eight brands from beverage giant Anheuser-Busch InBev for a cool $85 million. This grab left many industry professionals scratching their heads. Now, the company is making moves to expand the portfolios of its newly acquired brands.
In early February, news broke that Shock Top would be releasing a line of non-carbonated, 9-percent ABV hard teas under the name LiiT. And on Monday, beer industry outlet Brewbound confirmed the scoop and announced that Tilray would also be tapping into the NA beer market, the canned water sect, and other boozy beverage endeavors. Some of these launches include Runner’s High NA beer, Liquid Love canned water, new expressions from 10 Barrel Pub Beer, additions to SweetWater Brewing Company’s 420 Line, and soon-to-be-resurrected flavored malt beverage brand HiBall.
According to Tilray’s U.S. beer division president Ty Gilmore and new CMO Prinz Pinakatt, Tilray’s upcoming business strategies are built around three pillars: “Regional jewels that can win in their home markets; national brands, such as Shock Top and 10 Barrel’s category-crossing Pub platform; and innovation items that fill whitespace in key segments and flavors.” Gilmore and Pinakatt told Brewbound that Tilray will be moving quickly to bring these ideas to life, with the hopes of getting these products on shelves in a 90-day window.
“We’re doing innovation in two or three months, what a lot of companies do in five or six years,” Gilmore