Cutwater is becoming a $1 billion brand by doing the opposite of what everyone else in alcohol is doing

Cutwater, one of the fastest-growing brands in the spirits industry, is approaching a major milestone: $1 billion in annual sales. Revenue growth for the ready-to-drink canned cocktails, which come in two dozen different vodka, tequila, whiskey, gin, and rum concoctions, has hit triple digits—fast enough to make the brand one of the biggest growth engines for parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev. Cutwater has been scaling so quickly that in the second quarter of this year, the brand became the second-largest contributor to overall revenue growth for AB InBev, the largest brewer in the world. To take advantage of that swelling demand, the $150 billion beverage giant has continued to roll out new flavors, and consumers have been drinking them up, despite alcohol consumption and sales at record lows in the United States. “We were the fastest growing company in spirits because of the performance of Cutwater,” said Michel Doukeris, the CEO of AB InBev on the company’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday. Speaking to investors and analysts, Doukeris said Cutwater had become the “number one share gaining brand” in the entire spirits industry. “This brand was inexistent six, seven yea…