The ready-to-drink (RTD) beverage Surfside Iced Tea & Vodka won a Rising Star Growth Brands award this year, thanks to an impressive increase of 125% in 2025. We caught up with Clement Pappas, co-founder/CEO of parent company Stateside Brands to learn more about how they did it.
What led to the brand’s increased sales this past year?
In a time when the broader spirits industry has struggled, Surfside has stood out as the top performer. In fact, we have now become the #3 spirits volume brand in the United States. This is thanks to a combination of best-in-class brand building along with incredible support and buy-in from our distributor and retail partners.
We continue to recruit new Surfside fans as drinkers are actively opting for lower-calorie, easy-drinking, non-carbonated options and have discovered our delicious line of iced teas and lemonades. As traditional seltzers level off, and malt-forward cocktails often feel heavy, Surfside occupies the sweet spot as a sessionable choice to enjoy across so many different occasions.
We take enormous care in always crafting the best possible tasting liquid and being recognized as the best tasting Iced tea and Lemonade ready to drink brand in the market. The Surfside brand name, design, packaging and product are all new-to-world and innovative and authentic which has created a powerful consumer proposition with consumers living an active lifestyle.
At the same time, we have broadened our presence across both the on and off-premise channels, creating more moments and occasions for consumers to enjoy Surfside — from the beach and golf course to a sports game or night out. On-premise volume continues to grow, representing approximately 30% of our overall sales. We have been intentional about growing our business in that channel through localized programming to reach consumers.
We have aggressively grown our national accounts team and, in turn, our distribution across the country in large format, convenience, club and independent channels — leading to top performing national growth in the RTD spirits category. Surfside was the #1 best-selling spirit-based Hard Tea and Hard Lemonade brand within NIQ for FY 2025. We have also worked closely with our distributor partners expanding our footprint, as our partners have done an excellent job of executing our national and local programs at retail to make strong connections with consumers at the point of purchase.
What promotions and activations helped increase sales?
Our sports partnerships have been a major catalyst of driving our brand building and increasing our brand awareness, trial and growth. In 2025, Surfside engaged in strategic sports partnerships with the MLB, MiLB, NHL, MBA, MLS and Universities to reach 50-plus teams across the country. The strategy began authentically on our home turf with the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park and has scaled significantly since.
We have seen strong results from the localized campaigns, collaborative activations, retail displays, bar features and localized sweepstakes. Building on that momentum, we are expanding our presence across sports and lifestyle verticals, with focused investments in golf, music and ski to drive reach in new markets.
We have continued driving strong sampling efforts across the country by showing up at major music festivals, sporting events, and local events in the community. Our local teams have created a wave of meaningful consumer engagements that prioritize liquid to lips, which has converted to retail sales and repeat buys.
Were there any noteworthy new products or marketing campaigns for the brand?
Innovation remains a key growth driver. In 2025, we released co-branded Surfside cans and packaging with MLB partners, Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants. We have now expanded to additional teams for 2026 across the country. Another key package innovation was launching 19.2-oz. cans across our top-selling Surfside flavors. This SKU size is the perfect fit for C-store and venue business and provides an attractive price point for consumers.
Additionally, our innovation pipeline projects in 2025 have led to new flavors being released in 2026, including our new Blueberry Lemonade 4-pack and our Half & Half Variety 8-pack. Our line extensions broaden our appeal and recruit new consumers, which builds upon our momentum in the marketplace.
Regarding other marketing campaigns, our “No Bubbles, No Troubles” campaign has been a strong success. We have reached millions of consumers with this tagline and entertaining content in the world of golf. Consumers had chances to win custom golf towels throughout the golf season, and our number of fans have grown immensely through fun and entertaining digital content such as this.
Additionally, we have built strategic Hispanic marketing initiatives to test new messaging along with specific tactics to broaden our reach in the Hispanic community. We will begin initiating in key markets in 2026.
Last, but not least, this past year marked a defining brand moment with the renaming of South Philadelphia’s premier entertainment venue, Stateside Live!, formerly Xfinity Live!. This was a major milestone for our company cementing our place as a cultural mainstay within the local Philadelphia community.
What industry trends are most impacting the business now?
For years, consumers have been looking for a true alternative to beer; a delicious, flavor-forward, low-calorie, low-ABV, non-carbonated, spirit-based iced tea and lemonade offering in the convenience of a can. Prior to Surfside’s rise in popularity, options were limited to malt-based products and hard seltzers due to regulatory and tax considerations, which created barriers for spirit-based products. Now, with the emergence of vodka-based canned cocktails like Surfside, the category has fundamentally shifted — and there is no turning back.
We are always watching the growth of the non-carbonated RTD and spirits-based RTD segments. For Surfside, in addition to the premium vodka base and low carbs and low calories, our messaging around zero bubbles has been especially impactful. We have found that being non-carbonated resonates with consumers who are looking to avoid the bloated feeling and seeking options with fewer carbs and sugars. That has naturally carved out our role as a compelling alternative to beer.
We are also keeping a close eye on trends within occasion-based opportunities, particularly within sports and golf verticals. Our new Half & Half Variety 8-pack taps directly into the golf consumer, which continues to be a strong and popular occasion for enjoying RTD beverages.
What’s next for the company in the year ahead?
For Surfside, key plans for this year:
- Launched our new Blueberry Lemonade 4-pack, which will also be available in our Lemonade Variety Pack this spring. In addition, we launched our Half & Half Variety 8-Pack, across all markets and National Accounts, just in time for golf season.
- Increasing overall brand distribution and penetration in off and on channels across our footprint, with a strong continued focus with golf courses in the on-premise.
- 19.2-oz. Surfside flavors for convenience stores, in-venues, music festivals.
- Hispanic marketing initiatives in key markets.
- Continuing to drive growth and connect with our fans through our strategic sports partnerships with the MLB, NHL, NBA and NCAA teams across the country.
We also continue to drive authentic lifestyle partnerships with musicians and festivals across the country. We are meeting fans where they are so we can be a part of all their celebratory moments.
For emerging categories, we are very excited with the launch of Super Lyte last month — a new to world RTD brand in the ‘hard ade’ category. Super Lyte is inspired by classic sports drink flavors at 4.5% ABV, only 90 calories, zero sugar and zero bubbles.
We are very encouraged by the initial reaction we have received from our distributor network and key customers, which has been incredibly positive and in many ways very similar to when we launched Surfside. We are excited for all the growth to come for Super Lyte as our distribution accelerates quickly in 2026.
