FIFCO USA expands Pepsi partnership with Bubly and Lipton drinks planned in 2026

Genesee parent company outlines new Bubly Wine Refresher and Lipton Hard Iced Tea Zero Sugar drinks

If you needed another sign that beer companies aren’t just beer companies anymore, FIFCO USA’s 2026 playbook delivers it loud and clear.

The Rochester-based beverage maker — the U.S. arm of Costa Rica’s Florida Ice and Farm Company — used its virtual national meeting last week to announce two headline-grabbing innovations: Bubly Wine Refresher, a wine-based ready-to-drink (RTD) collaboration with PepsiCo’s sparkling water brand, and Lipton Hard Iced Tea Zero Sugar, a lower-calorie offshoot of one of FIFCO’s breakout products. This new was first reported in Beer Business Daily, the industry newsletter sent to wholesalers and other beverage-minded folks. Quotes used in this newsletter are taken from the BBD.

(For reference: FIFCO USA is the parent company of Genesee Brewing, Labatt USA, Seagram’s Escapes, and others.)

For FIFCO, the message was simple: evolve or fade. For the rest of the beer industry, it’s a reminder that the definition of “brewing” keeps stretching by the year.

“Not innovation for the sake of innovation”

Guillermo Sanchez, FIFCO USA’s vice president of marketing, framed these new products as strategic and deliberate. “We’re not doing innovation for the sake of innovation,” he said. “We’re addressing specific white spaces in demand and consumer needs.”

Translation: these aren’t random experiments — they’re calculated moves into spaces that traditional beer no longer fills.

That’s a playbook we’ve seen across the board lately. Years ago, Boston Beer turned to Twisted Tea and Truly to offset its declining beer portfolio. Molson Coors has staked much of its growth on spirits-based RTDs and non-alcoholic brands. Anheuser-Busch InBev is diversifying into everything from energy drinks to “better-for-you” seltzers. Even Constellation’s wine and spirits arms are helping prop up sluggish beer sales.

FIFCO most recently invested in its infrastructure at the Genesee facility on St. Paul Street with the installation of a $23 million packaging line last year, as well as millions more spent on the storage silos for the neutral malt base used for its expanding line of flavored malt beverages. In 2024, FIFCO USA announced it would invest $50 million investment to modernize and upgrade the brewery’s packaging capabilities. In total, Genny has seen $215 million invested on the campus over the last 15 years to upgrade the brewhouse, packaging lines, and malt beverage production.

So FIFCO’s doubling down on Pepsi partnerships — where brand recognition and national distribution are baked in — feels like a practical move in a business that’s getting harder by the quarter.

No slowdown promised despite the Heineken headlines

FIFCO USA’s parent company, the Costa Rican-based FIFCO, recently made waves by selling its Central American beverage business to Heineken in a multibillion-dollar deal. But U.S. CEO Gustavo Cornejo Parraga was quick to reassure partners that the sale “has no implications” for the American arm. (I’ve been trying to nail down an interview with Cornejo Parraga for the past few months and remain hopeful it’ll eventually get set up. I am also planning to go into more depth and detail in the near future about Genny’s contract brewing arrangements and the growth we’ve seen in many non-beer categories. Stay tuned!)

“We remain business as usual,” he said, emphasizing a focus on innovation, marketing investment, and “putting resources behind the brewery.” It’s unclear what those resources are. But again, I hope to have more on that soon.

In an environment where consumer tastes shift faster than a canning line can run, FIFCO USA is clearly trying to show stability — and signal that it’s willing to spend on ideas that actually have legs.

Bubly Wine Refresher: “Reclaiming a space in alcohol for women”

The biggest swing of the 2026 lineup is Bubly Wine Refresher, a 4.5% ABV, 100-calorie canned drink made with sparkling water, rosé wine, and natural fruit flavors.

Brand director Lisa Texido described the concept as “reclaiming a space in alcohol for women, specifically Millennial moms.” Her target drinker already loves wine but doesn’t always want to open a bottle — or feel weighed down by the higher alcohol content.

“When she wants to relax, she doesn’t want to drink more,” Texido said. “She wants to drink better.”

That’s exactly the mindset driving much of the alcohol industry’s current pivot. Lighter, lower-ABV, and “better-for-you” options are a growing slice of an otherwise flat category. We’ve seen this in the success of other brands like High Noon, JuneShine, and Loverboy.

With Bubly Wine Refresher, FIFCO USA is betting that the same consumer who trusts Bubly sparkling water to get them through a Tuesday afternoon will also trust the brand to usher them into Friday night.

Familiar brand, focused rollout

Bubly Wine Refresher will debut in March with two flavors — Strawberry Peach Rosé and Blackberry Lemon Rosé — in both 4-packs and an 8-pack variety pack. According to Beer Business Daily, this is FIFCO’s top launch priority and something that is clearly made possible through the massive investment we’ve already seen in the brewery’s packaging capabilities.

To start, as BBD reported, the brand will target 12 states — including New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas — before expanding nationally by 2027. It also reports the company is still sorting out which wholesaler network it will use to distribute the brand.

FIFCO wants the product merchandised next to spirit-based RTDs, not buried in the wine section. “That’s where she’s already shopping,” Texido said. She outlined the importance of in-store tastings and a cheeky Mother’s Day–adjacent ad push built around “Mother’s Day Eve” — when moms “clock out, link up, and toast to themselves. The aim is to drive the launch with humor and relatability.

The branding, tone, and packaging all carry Bubly’s signature playfulness — but the drink itself is part of a broader repositioning: beer companies tapping into the spaces once dominated by wine and spirits.

Lipton Hard Iced Tea keeps climbing — and gets lighter

The other major 2026 move from FIFCO is Lipton Hard Iced Tea Zero Sugar, which capitalizes on one of the few unqualified success stories in flavored malt beverages right now.

Lipton Hard, another collaboration with PepsiCo, has become a top-five hard tea nationally and one of the three fastest-growing, up nearly 18% over last year. At Walmart, it’s now the No. 2 hard tea, growing 71% year-to-date, Texido said as reported by BBD.

That success didn’t happen by accident. FIFCO built the brand around nostalgia, taste, and trust — all tied to a household name that already dominated the non-alcoholic tea shelf.

Now it’s going lighter. The new Zero Sugar line includes Lemon, Peach, Half & Half, and a new Raspberry flavor. The drinks clock in at 5% ABV and 95 calories — hitting the same “better-for-me” bullseye that’s driving Bubly’s launch.

Brand manager Adam Fries said research suggests this new version could grow Lipton’s base by up to 35%, attracting a “younger, more female, and more health-conscious” consumer with minimal cannibalization.

Lipton Hard Zero will also be the only zero-sugar hard tea from a major national brand, giving FIFCO USA a crucial first-mover edge, BBD reported.

The bigger story: the beer industry’s identity crisis

FIFCO USA’s strategy mirrors what virtually every major beer supplier is doing: looking beyond beer to survive.

The days when a company could rely on light lagers and craft spin-offs are fading fast. Consumers are drinking less overall (but it’s worth noting that more people are drinking craft beer, but they’re drinking it less often), but they’re also spending more on products that promise flavor, balance, and authenticity. The hard truth for legacy breweries is that the drinkers fueling that growth rarely identify as “beer drinkers” anymore.

FIFCO’s decision to pair up with PepsiCo — not once, but twice — underscores a larger truth: brand trust matters more than category boundaries. Bubly and Lipton already live in millions of refrigerators; FIFCO USA just wants to put a buzz in those same cans.

If these plays work, they don’t just pad revenue — they buy time for breweries like FIFCO USA to figure out what comes next. FIFCO USA’s 2026 lineup isn’t just about new products; it’s about survival in a world where beer is no longer the default drink. Bubly Wine Refresher and Lipton Hard Zero Sugar may not appeal to the IPA crowd, but they speak directly to where the momentum — and the money — is going.

And if those cans start flying off shelves next spring, it’ll be another reminder that the future of “beer” might not taste like beer at all.