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This Ohio hard tea brand is now running ‘Wild’ after a smart rebrand, distribution deal

August 10, 2023Chris Crowell

Columbus, Ohio’s Wild Ohio Brewing, and its inventive lineup of hard teas, has been a favorite of mine since it launched in 2016. The company has steadily built up its brand — and really, the entire craft hard tea segment — over the years, especially after debuting a production facility in 2019.

Following investments in the launch of a new flavor Wild T Original, refreshed packaging and expanded distribution this year, Wild Ohio is hitting new heights. And, just given the diversity of alcoholic beverage brands these days, and the rise of RTDs, now is just the right time for a gluten-free / non-beer / tasty / local alcoholic beverage brand to gain prominence.

Wild Ohio Brewing reports more than 100% year-over-year sales growth for Wild T through June 2023. Wild T’s significant growth in 2023 is led by the brand’s flagship flavors Black Cherry Bourbon Barrel (9% ABV) and Strawberry Pineapple (9% ABV).

A new partnership with Heidelberg Distributing this year strengthened the Wild T portfolio across Ohio, including adding points of distribution in chains like Kroger and Meijer while expanding distribution to Kentucky.

In April 2023, Wild T expanded distribution to Connecticut in a new partnership with Sarene Craft Beer Distributors and recently entered distribution in Texas with Green Light Distribution. Wild T is now at retailers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Kentucky and Connecticut, as well as across its home state of Ohio.

Wild Ohio Brewing President Joe Noll also joined the Wild T team in 2023 to support the brand’s investments and to lead the hard tea lineup’s distribution strategy. Noll brings more than 30 years of three-tier experience to the team, most recently serving as president of Heidelberg Distributing.

“Joining the Wild T team this year and developing a strategy for packaging, pricing, and programming that resonates with our distribution and sales partners has been an exciting opportunity,” said Noll. “Wild T’s color, aroma and mouth feel truly makes it a unique beverage that meets the needs of a wide variety of consumers. We offer a well balanced tea with 5 to 9 percent ABV and yet no strong alcohol taste.”

In addition to the significant personnel and partnership investments made this year, Wild T introduced updated marketing and branding strategies, including a complete packaging refresh for its lineup of vegan, gluten-free hard teas.

A key, to me, is the shift to making “Wild T” front and center, versus Wild Ohio Brewing. Wild T is a great brand name, and it places much greater emphasis on the core of what Wild Ohio is — a hard tea brand — versus just another local “brewing company”.

The latest flavor of the lineup, Wild T Original (5% ABV), is now available in six-packs of 12-ounce cans or four-packs of 16-ounce cans following an early Summer 2023 launch.

“In addition to our new packaging and rebranding, we have added to our team to increase our brand awareness in our core market of Ohio as well as deepen our reach in both existing and new markets said Noll. “We’ve implemented an aggressive sampling program this year and are seeing an increasing rate of sale with tremendous year-over-year growth percentages.”

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