Heineken has increased its stake in Ellie Goulding’s Served ready-to-drink cocktail brand as it looks to grow outside of beer and cider.
The Strongbow and Birra Moretti brewer paid £2.4m to increase its minority shareholding in Served to 40% last year, according to newly filed accounts filed by its UK subsidiary.
Heineken first invested in Served in September 2023, making an undisclosed investment to acquire a “significant minority stake” in the brand.
“Served continues to perform strongly with significant growth in distribution and strong rate of sale in the off-trade,” a spokeswoman for Heineken UK said. “With our ‘beyond beer’ team, we continue to broaden our range of adult drinks and the increased investment in Served demonstrates our commitment to this.”
Beyond Served, Heineken also launched ‘beyond beer’ innovations from its Desperados, Red Stripe and Old Mout brands in 2024. This year it bought a stake in Tenzing, the natural energy drink brand.
Not all of its bets have worked out, however. Rum Stripe, the rum-based RTD from its Red Stripe brand that launched last August, has already been delisted, The Grocer has learned.
Rum Stripe amassed sales of just £189k in the 52 weeks to 19 April 2025, NIQ data shows.
Revenues at Heineken UK in the year ended 31 December 2024 stood at £2.32bn, down slightly on the £2.4bn recorded in 2023 owing to a reduction in income from contract brewing and packaging.
Operating profits, meanwhile, fell 16.4% to £143m, after the company recorded a net £16m impairment in relation to property, plant and equipment within its Star Pubs unit.
In response to persistent inflation in the UK, Heineken said it had rolled out a “moderate” price increases in the on-trade, but “no headline increase” in the off-trade.
Other brand innovations brought to market during the period included Foster’s Proper Shandy, Strongbow Strawberry and Birra Moretti Sale di Mare.
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