NIO Cocktails bets on UK under new owner
Richard Sager has returned to NIO Cocktails as owner and CEO following the closure of Diageo’s Distill Ventures and a subsequent restructuring of the business.
NIO was established in Milan, Italy, by Luca Quagliano and Alessandro Palmarin in 2017. The ready-to-drink (RTD) brand, which stands for ‘needs ice only’, offers pre-made cocktails in slim, recyclable, letterbox-friendly sleeves.
In 2023, the business secured investment from Diageo’s incubator arm, Distill Ventures. The Growth Foundation later acquired a majority stake in NIO in 2024, forming a 51/49 shareholding split with Distill Ventures.
However, following the closure of Distill Ventures last year, the business was restructured and former NIO employee Sager subsequently took full ownership of the company.
Restructured as a UK-based company, the market has now become the key focus for the brand.
Sager left his role as group chief commercial officer of NIO in 2024, rejoining the business as its owner and CEO this year. His background in the industry includes seven years at Bacardi-Martini, as well as setting up his own venture, a spirits subscription service called The Spirited Club.
‘Ready-to-experience’ over ready-to-drink
“When you work for any company for a prolonged period of time you have a vested interest in its success,” Sager says. He was approached about the NIO opportunity by Thomas Parrott, who was brought in as a consultant to support the restructure of the business, following the Distill Ventures shutdown.
“NIO is unique in a very positive way in a world where the ready-to-drink category has and continues to grow significantly,” Sager explains. “I think NIO is unique because arguably we’re not ready-to-drink, we’re ready-to-experience.”
Unlike many other RTDs, Sager emphasises NIO was “not designed to be put in a refrigerator” and consumed on the go. NIO, as its name suggests, is best served over ice, but the product itself is meant to be displayed, whether that’s on a bookcase, shelf or coffee table, rather than chilled beforehand in a fridge, Sager notes. “We shouldn’t be hidden away, we do form part of the style of the room.”
For Sager, it’s all about the ritual and “heightening the occasion” as a drinker only needs to shake and tear the pack open, without the need for cocktail shakers, before you “hear the ice crack as the cocktail is poured over it”.
He explains: “We ask everyone to just wait 30 seconds to a minute so that the ice can do its work. It opens up the cocktail, it cools the drink down a little bit, in much the same way as shaking or stirring in a bar would do. And it adds that little bit of dilution as well. So, we’re not ready to drink in the classic sense of ready-to-drink.”
Sager also believes NIO has “led the charge in not just bar-quality, but world-class cocktails”.
He refers back to how the RTD category has significantly shifted from the alcopop generation of Bacardi Breezer and Smirnoff Ice, describing NIO as the opposite of “sickly sweet” and lower-ABV pre-mixed drinks of the past.
“We believe that ‘world class’ encompasses a variety of different things,” Sager points out, citing the ABV strength, and the “understanding and knowledge” of the base spirit and the “fact that they are fantastic spirits”.
He explains: “When you talk about bar-strength [cocktails], you should be able to compare the bar strength to the ABV of any cocktail bar in the world. So the bar and the ABV of cocktail changes, right? An Espresso Martini is not intended to be the same strength as an Old Fashioned or a Cosmopolitan, Daiquiri or whatever else.”
As such, Sager says NIO’s range does not follow a “flat ABV structure” like other brands on the market.
NIO’s production has also shifted from Italy to a site in Sussex, England. It was a gradual move, Sager explains, with the company’s proprietary equipment moved over.
“I would argue that being vertically integrated continues to deliver phenomenal opportunities for NIO,” says Sager.
The company is also developing a 700ml bottle for large-format ready-to-serve cocktails, which will be more targeted onwards the on-trade so that it can be showcased on the back bar in “more traditional bar packaging” following industry demand.
“One of the benefits of being an owner of the company is you can make decisions that previously weren’t yours to make,” he adds. “We’re developing glass at the moment but in a way that still leans into sustainability.”
Shunning cans: ‘ready-to-chug’ format
However, the company is not planning to move into glass when it comes to consumer sales, and there are no plans to produce a canned format.
“Moving into a world of canning would not necessarily be helpful for how we want to grow, and there are some good reasons why NIO in its current packaging works really well in formats that are not cans,” Parrott says. “For instance, airlines, we fit much better on a trolley than a can – we’re much easier to stack.”
He believes that cans could “potentially cheapen what we would offer”, adding that he views the format as a “ready-to-chug cocktail, so it’s a different experience”.
Parrott adds that the business had been approached in the past from big events with “thousands of people” but the brand was unable to meet the requirements of the events with single-pour 100ml cocktails.
Instead, the brand can work particularly well in venues like theatres, which might lack the capacity or the skills of a bartender to make a high-quality cocktail, Parrott explains. The brand can also tap into minibars in hotel rooms for the same reason without the need to be refrigerated.
Currently, the brand can be found across hotels, airlines and department stores like John Lewis.
NIO recently tapped Gorilla Brands to ‘drive the next phase of UK growth’, leading the RTD’s distribution strategy across the on- and off-trade.
The aim is to grow distribution in the UK. “You have to win in your home market,” says Sager. “We have a really good understanding of the consumer in the UK and what they want and we feel that there’s more we can do for them.”
The growth opportunities for RTDs are significant. Globally, the category surpassed vodka in value last year, according to IWSR. Total RTD volumes were up by 3% in 2025, outperforming spirits, wine and beer internationally.
Recent data showed sales of RTDs generated £704 million (US$948m) in the UK off-trade last year. The nation’s on-trade sales approached £200m (US$265m) during the same period.
“There’s a lot more for us to do and win in the UK, and I think that’s really important,” Sager says.
He also stresses the importance of finding the right partners to work with, claiming that the business has been “approached a lot by distributors and importers who want to represent NIO in other markets”.
Sager adds: “As brand owners we recognise that it’s critical to do our own due diligence and to really understand the companies and people that are approaching us because ultimately they’re going to become brand custodians for us.”
NIO seeks new spirits partners
In terms of the range of cocktails NIO offers, the biggest sellers are the classics like Cosmopolitans, Daiquiris and Margaritas. The company has launched limited edition Christmas cocktails in the past, with three planned for the next festive season.
“We have a large menu, I think it’s probably a bit too expansive at the moment,” Sager ponders, adding that the range spans all types of spirits and taste profiles.
The ownership change also means that NIO is freed up to find new spirits partners for its products. Currently, many of the NIO cocktails listed on the site are made with Diageo products like Tanqueray and Bulleit Bourbon, while MGP-owned Exotico is used as the base for Tequila cocktails.
Parrott says the business has been able to have conversations with a variety of producers and distilleries that are “all award-winning and the kind of quality that you would expect”.
In the past, the company has created co-branded cocktails with spirits brands like Bacardi-owned Irish whiskey Teeling, Cointreau liqueur and Italy’s Portofino Dry Gin.
Sager says transparency is important with the company showcasing the names of the brands it works with on its packaging. “We are proud of the brands we work with, the due diligence that we do around the quality, their stories and their heritage.”
When it comes to future releases, Sager would like to test a Penicillin and “anything with mezcal” because of its smokier flavours, with Sager being a self-professed peated whisky fan.
Long drinks must not ‘dilute’ brand
The company has explored whether it can deliver long drinks based on consumer demand without “diluting our brand”, Sager says. “There’s an entire cocktail category out there of long cocktails and NIO has always been a classic short-pour 100ml cocktail.”
As such, NIO is about to release collaborations with companies that produce mixers, which will come out in the summer, as a pairing box with NIO’s 100ml pouches.
As for the future, Sager says the intention is to “not try and get ahead of ourselves in Q4 2026, to not push innovation too hard, too quickly and not overpromise on timelines for new things coming out”.
He explains that the brand had experienced major growth during the pandemic when consumers were forced to stay at home, with demand outstripping supply.
“Come 2027, we really do have that opportunity to put our foot on the accelerator, and that’s all the planning work that’s going in now,” Sager says. “We’ve got a much clearer view as to what the menu for 2027 is going to look, both our core and our limited editions.
“We’ve got a much clearer view from a strategic viewpoint as to what the big B2B channel opportunities are and the handful of targets that we want to go after.”
As for global expansion, Sager says: “I think we are getting much more rigorous again with our understanding of what it takes to be successful outside of the UK.”
He explains the business “turned down countless people who want to take NIO, both because we’re not ready and we don’t think that they are either”.
For the strategy going forward, Sager notes: “I would say this half year consolidate, next year solidify and grow in the UK and thereafter ensure that we’ve got a playbook that allows us to deliver the NIO experience across multiple markets.”
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