Looking forward, Clements believes people are buying into seltzers and he says Drty was the number one or two selling product at several festivals this year, “outselling even lager at Mighty Hoopla Festival”. A 25% premium for a controlling stake in one of Europe’s largest electronic and white goods retailers is too low. Macro-indicators are improving and the proposed offer appears opportunistic in our view. Q1 trading for Darty was ahead of expectations; several catalysts exist. Raspberry Rosé offers a sweet and fruity beverage, meanwhile, White Citrus features hints of grapefruit and lime. New beverage brand Drty has launched a 4% ABV ‘zero-carb’ hard seltzer in two flavours, as it looks to bring the drinks trend to the UK.

Drty’s new branding, created in collaboration with brand agency Studio Juice, will role out through all sales channels in the coming weeks. It also includes commentary and predictions from industry and category experts, including Waitrose buyer John Vine, consumer insights director alcohol at Kantar Worldpanel Tom Mallett, and CGA Strategy’s Tom Mulcauley. In addition to supporting category growth, the emergence of hard seltzers should help to further alter perceptions of RTD in the same way that premix products (such as canned gin and tonic) have done so successfully over the past few years. Darty PLC (LON:DRTY) opened at 81.50 on Monday. Darty PLC has a 1-year low of GBX 62.00 and a 1-year high of GBX 83.75. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is GBX 73.66 and its 200-day moving average price is GBX 71.58. Commenting on the launch, co-founder of Drty Matija Pisk, said: “We wanted to give UK consumers an alternative to high-sugar ciders and calorie-dense beers. Ultimately drinking alcohol is not a healthy activity, so the concept for the brand was born out of this contradiction – a drink that is clean but is still pretty Drty”.Since the first hard seltzer brands started launching in the UK in 2019, there has been a rush of entrants, from some of the largest multinationals – AB Inbev, Coca Cola, White Claw, and Kopparberg – to small independents and start-ups, such as DRTY, Good One, Served. The report was compiled and authored by Matthew Langley, who is a food and drink insights, strategy and brand expert with more than 19 years’ experience. He previously authored the first four editions of the Weston’s category report, the annual analysis on the cider category. After fermentation, the mix is blended with purified sparkling water and natural fruit flavours to create the end product. And while pre-pandemic predictions may not have come to fruition, there’s still room on the shelves for hard seltzer brands – though recent moves suggest some might be called something different. I think the category was probably overhyped in 2019/2020 but there is definitely still a place for it on retailers’ shelves,” he says. “We think that seltzer will form a sub-segment of RTD rather than a category of it’s own, and maybe be slightly smaller in size than many of the predictions suggested.”

Mallett said: “Hard seltzers are an exciting addition to the GB market. Although it is still early days, the growth seen in the US suggests a positive future for the category in GB and should further boost the growth of the strongly performing RTD category.” Not only that, Clements believes the use of the word ‘vodka’ better enables them to play in the RTD space, opening up possibilities to work with other spirits categories on seltzer products. Fnac is cash rich, c.€540m (Dec 2014) and with little commitment to a dividend policy we question why there is no cash component to the proposed offer. The attraction of Fnac paper, a very different business to Darty, is questionable for Darty shareholders in our view. The revamp would seek to capitalise on RTD category growth, while disassociating from the term “hard seltzer”, Drty said. Two times Darty have given dates for delivery of an expensive air conditioner, but nothing was delivered. When we complain about it, they insist that a) they have sent an sms the day before, and b) that they have called us during the day, although we have proof that no calls or sms:s have been received. The French mobile number we have given them is correct and working. It's, in short, a disaster of service, a prime example of the decadence of administrative and customer service in France. Imagine France in 1900, and compare with what we see now, at Darty and elsewhere. It's deplorable.Tom Mallett, consumer insights director, alcohol at Kantar, said: “Although it is still early days, the growth seen in the US suggests a positive future for the category in GB [Great Britain] and should further boost the growth of the strongly performing RTD category.

Studio Juice – the brand agency used by Camden Town Brewery, Moju, Karma Drinks and Momo Kombucha – were responsible for the refresh. The London-based brand refers to the spike in popularity that the hard seltzer category has seen in the US over the past few years and aims to catalyse the trend in the UK. Kantar data cited by the report also found that more than 1.5m litres of hard seltzer were sold in the UK in the 12 months to 20 November 2020. Since January 2020, the category’s volume grew by 1,087% to 1.57m litres. The report said that the IWSR predicts a UK compound annual growth rate of 71% from 2019 to 2024. The term ‘hard seltzer’ has never sat easily with UK consumers. And what should’ve arguably been a pivotal moment for the category in 2020, as it rode the wave across the Atlantic, was eclipsed by a global pandemic.

He says the most common question during sampling was “what’s the alcohol in this?” And further research found the word ‘hard’ was the problem. Hard seltzer is an alcoholic beverage containing sparkling water, alcohol and natural fruit flavours. In the US, it’s a readily used term for alcohol but that does not hold in the UK,” explains Clements. “The word ‘seltzer’ was less of a problem – consumers in the UK are starting to get what that means, particularly driven by the huge popularity of seltzers at UK festivals, and brands such as White Claw going big on ad campaigns.” London-based hard seltzer brand Drty released The Drty Hard Seltzer Handbook, which looks at the origin of the category, other brands in the market, consumer demographics, case studies, market size and future predictions.