I’ve found myself adding some qualifiers to interview requests lately, ensuring people that while I create stories, analysis, and podcasts for Good Beer Hunting, the interests of myself and the publication extend far beyond what the name may suggest. If you click around goodbeerhunting.com or scroll through our podcast archive, you get the idea—we focus on so much more than just beer.
That’s the way of the beverage alcohol industry these days, and why we’re talking to Vikram and Vivek Nayar in this episode. The pair are behind Two Robbers, a regionally-focused hard seltzer company that represents an ever-increasing portion of the category. There’s a good chance you know about White Claw, Truly, or Bud Light hard seltzers, but there are dozens of others who have found success by setting themselves apart from the most mass-produced examples on the market.
What you’ll hear in this conversation is a reflection on current narratives of hard seltzer and what it means to build a company in a category that has completely changed beverage alcohol. Whether or not you’re a hard seltzer fan, the context and insight from Vik and Viv will help you better understand what it’s like for businesses in this rather new segment. And whatever headlines you may see, know that hard seltzer is wildly outpacing growth of beer, wine, and spirits in retail, which is why discussions like this can be so helpful to understand realities from within the industry.