Posts Tagged ‘zima’

Got this in my email today:

Due to challenging malternative segment sales and declining consumer
interest, MillerCoors has decided to discontinue production of Zima
effective October 10.

Current inventories of Zima will remain available for order with
distributors on a first-come, first-served basis, pending available
inventory. We expect to fill our last orders for Zima sometime in
December.

This decision is necessary to reduce complexity when it comes to our
brand portfolio, allowing for more focused activity at retail on
consumer-preferred brands, especially Sparks.

With that in mind, we are telling our consolidated shared-house
distributors to sell through Zima in their warehouses and then backfill
retail shelf space with Sparks and Sparks Plus 4-packs and Sparks Light.
We are asking unconsolidated, Coors-only distributors to backfill with
other, consumer-preferred, MillerCoors brands.

We appreciate your help in ensuring we turn this difficult decision into
an opportunity to grow the MillerCoors portfolio.

Sincerely,
Andy England
Chief Marketing Officer

Thanks to Andy from MillerCoors for the email and confirmation. Everybody start partying like it’s 1999.

ZIMA came out in 1992 as one of the first “Malt” beverages that wasn’t technically concidered beer. Since then we’ve seen some interesting drinks come out, but we can attribute those roots to the Coors Brewing Co. in Golden Colo… oh wait. They’re now MillerCoors? Oh.

Normally we don’t talk about alcoholic beverages on Dorkazine, but this one spawned it’s own little nation. More important, today marks a sad day for Zima Dorks. MillerCoors announced it is discontinuing the drink.

I remember when it came out – And Yes: I had my own little phase of drinking Zima. I was in college. It’s time to experiment, right?

Anyway, ZIMA did come out in 1992, so it missed the cool shows like Miami Vice and 21 Jumpstreet to market to the trendy.  We did have the Arsenio Hall Show, Seinfeld, Law & Order and Ren & Stimpy.  But still, it was forever the 90′s drink that had a small following.

You can read about the end of ZIMA here. Goto Zima.com (not linking for it might be a doomed site) for Zima info.