This feature is part of our 2024 Next Wave Awards.
When Matt and Bryan Quigley graduated from college in the mid- and late aughts, respectively, the Pennsylvania natives got to work building their careers. For Matt, that meant pursuing a future in entrepreneurship; a few years after being recruited out of college to help launch franchise restaurants, he left to help develop business plans for budding owners to secure equity. Bryan, on the other hand, was pursuing a career in finance.
But in 2013, both siblings found themselves living back home in Pennsylvania pondering their next move. Then, they asked each other a question that would change the trajectory of their futures: Should we start a vodka company? The two brothers didn’t know much about producing spirits, but they learned while tinkering with distillation equipment and small-batch runs in their parent’s basement in Montgomery County.
A couple of years later, their business plan caught the eye of Clement Pappas. Pappas, who previously operated a third-generation, Vineland, N.J.-based juice company, received the proposal from a friend of Matt and Bryan’s at his birthday party. Having recently sold the juice company, Pappas had a years-long non-compete in non-alcoholic products, but spirits were on the table. Curiosity piqued, he met up with the two Quigleys, drank some vodka, and ultimately joined the team as an investor along with his brother Zach.
With funding secured, Matt and Bryan were able to sign a lease on a distillery space and Stateside Vodka was born, officially hitting the market in December 2015. The Philadelphia-based brand is successful in its own right, claiming the title of Pennsylvania’s top-selling state-made spirit, with sales bolstered even further with the release of Stateside Vodka Soda in 2021.
But it didn’t take long for the four co-founders to recognize a pretty sizable hole in the ready-to-drink market. And it was one they were ready to fill.
“If you ever want to know what the people of your city are drinking, just start paying attention to what’s on the ground. In Philly, this means an abnormally large amount of empty iced tea cans and bottles,” Matt says. “Understanding that, we started combing through the data and we found a huge category with only a couple of brands. This was the start of our ‘What’s next?’ ideation.”
It was that ideation that gave way to Surfside, Stateside’s beach-inspired collection of vodka-spiked iced teas and lemonades. Since its flagship launch of Iced Tea, Peach Tea, Half and Half, and Lemonade in 2022, the RTD brand has exploded in popularity, with distribution expanding from just seven states to an impressive 48 by the end of 2023. In its second year on shelves, Surfside’s case sales swelled by a whopping 563 percent year-over-year, pushing the brand over the 1 million case mark and solidifying its position as America’s fastest-growing canned cocktail brand.
“Surfside in particular has been a wild ride,” says Clement. “I don’t think any of us expected it would go this crazy, that’s for sure. It’s just taken off beyond our wildest expectations.”
Two major factors contributing to Surfside’s stratospheric rise? A distinct lack of carbonation paired with a very appealing nutrition panel.
Currently available in nine flavors — the brand added Green Tea, Raspberry Tea, and several flavored lemonades to its portfolio in April 2024 — each can of Surfside is 4.5 percent ABV and clocks in at 100 calories with just 2 grams of sugar, levels that are practically unheard of for hard tea and lemonade. Not only did these nutrition facts help win over consumers looking for an alternative to the sugar-laden hard teas of yesteryear, but they also helped Surfside align with already familiar brands like White Claw and High Noon.
“When you look at what spirits-based drinks people choose outside of RTDs, many are non-carbonated,” Bryan points out. “At the same time, though, we knew that 100-calorie, full-flavor, and low-sugar options are going to attract drinkers. Surfside hits on all of these points and fills a void that wasn’t met before.”
Light, refreshing, and packed with flavor, drinking a Surfside is like summer in a can, a feeling the brand is eager to align with. Packaged in ‘70s-inspired, 12-ounce cans adorned with a lemon-wheel sun and stripes the color of a sunset, the design — envisioned by Matt — immediately brings to mind beachy relaxation, which Clement describes as a “universally appealing brand personality.”
“Our fans have told us over and over again how Surfside fits their lifestyle,” Matt adds. “They love how sessionable it is for a day at the beach, on a golf course, or at a baseball game.”
Enjoyment at baseball games in particular has been instrumental in driving Surfside’s success on-premise. Considering Stateside’s long-term partnership with the Philadelphia Phillies, it wasn’t too much of a stretch to convince those managing concessions at Citizens Bank Park to offer Surfsides for the 2022 season. But it’s the hawkers Clement credits for shooting the brand to success in the stadium.
Hawkers — who roam the stands selling cold drinks to thirsty fans — typically work on commission, so they’re only willing to stock up on beverages they know will sell. And Surfside was selling. That year, the brand’s Vodka + Tea SKU was the No.1-selling item at the ballpark. Fan fervor for the stuff grew even more last season, allowing Surfside to become the top-selling spirits brand at Citizens Bank Park in 2023. This hometown success catapulted the brand to partnerships with four additional Major League Baseball teams for the 2024 season — the Atlanta Braves, the Baltimore Orioles, the Cleveland Guardians, and the Pittsburgh Pirates. Minor League Baseball fans were in luck, too: Surfside became the official RTD Vodka Iced Tea and Vodka Lemonade of the MiLB in April 2024.
“The massive explosion we saw in 2023 helped prepare us for another knockout year in 2024. Seeing the takeoff was incredible,” Bryan explains. “We can laugh about it now, but keeping up with demand was a big challenge and came with a lot of learning for our national launch.”
Looking to the future, Surfside’s co-founders certainly understand that 500 percent annual growth can’t last forever, but that doesn’t mean they’re expecting things to slow down anytime soon. By continuing to invest heavily in newer markets, the two sets of brothers now have one very clear goal in mind: to make Surfside the leader for spirits-based teas and lemonades across the country.
