Campari is making its biggest bet ever on a pink spritz

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN

New York (CNN) — As the alcohol industry deals with a dreary environment in the US, Aperol’s parent company hopes a brightly colored aperitif imported from Italy will entice drinkers.

Campari Group is making its biggest investment ever for the US launch of Sarti Rosa, a tropical pink-colored aperitivo liqueur made for spritzes. The Sarti Spritz has built a devoted following from Americans visiting Europe over the past few years, posting the bubbly concoction on TikTok and begging the company to bring it stateside.

The Italian company has seen its US business grow consecutively for the past five years by heavily promoting Aperol and Campari, popularizing the spritz to Americans cutting back on drinking as a lighter alternative to booze-heavy cocktails. With Sarti Rosa, however, the aim is to attract younger drinkers who prefer a sweeter aperitivo that doesn’t taste bitter.

“There’s a lot more growth in the spritz category,” Allison Varone, head of marketing for Campari Group, told CNN. “We believe that (Sarti Rosa) is building upon that and consumers now know what a spritz is, so they’re looking for different spins and variations.”

For those unfamiliar, a Sarti Spritz has tasting notes of mango, passionfruit and blood orange that is mixed with Prosecco and club soda. The pink-hued cocktail is photogenic, which has made it a social media sensation.

For the first six months of this year, global sales of Campari Group’s aperitifs, including Aperol and Campari, grew 4%. The category that includes Sarti Rosa jumped nearly 9% worldwide, bolstered by the pink drink’s continued growth across Europe.

Sales for many alcohol brands in the US market have been sluggish as consumers in recent years, particularly younger ones, moderate their drinking or seek out more budget-friendly options.

“The alcohol business in the United States is struggling more than in virtually any other part of the world,” Bourcard Nesin, a beverage analyst for Rabobank, told CNN earlier this year. “We’re seeing dramatic declines in consumption that aren’t taking place elsewhere.”

However, early signs in the United States have been encouraging for Campari Group. The company began rolling out Sarti Rosa to retailers and bars in June. Southern Glazer’s Wine and Spirits, the nation’s biggest distributor, told CNN that the liqueur is one of its most successful launches ever.

“We are seeing particular success in markets that already over-index with spritz, like New York,” said Zach Poelma, the company’s senior vice president of strategy and insights. “While normally a new item launch would build up over time and be a more gradual build, we are seeing significant interest from both chains and independent accounts.”

At Saksey’s, a cocktail bar in Detroit, the Sarti Spritz has become one of the bar’s top-selling drinks since hitting menus last month. Tara Wong, head bartender, attributes its quick rise to a growing thirst among drinkers for refreshing, fruit-forward options.

“What has been especially exciting is that guests are not only asking for the Sarti Spritz, they are interested in experiencing it in other cocktails as well,” Wong told CNN.

Sarti’s debut comes amid growing competition for spritzes in the United States, including from the Hugo Spritz, an elderflower-based cocktail often made from Bacardi-owned St-Germain.

The privately held company hasn’t disclosed St-Germain sales. But in June, a research note from S&P Global said the liqueur continues “to grow faster than the broader industry.” Square data shows that orders have skyrocketed more than 150% year-over-year, making the Hugo Spritz the fastest-growing cocktail this past summer.

Despite the competition, Campari Group’s Varone said she thinks the US launch of Sarti Rosa will help bolster Campari’s dominance within spritz.

“We’re fortunate that we lean in on a portfolio that’s attractive to all consumers, especially young ones,” she said.

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