The Finnish Long Drink Sells to White Claw's Owner for a Reported $325M

The Finnish Long Drink, the ready-to-drink gin-and-grapefruit cocktail brand, has been acquired by the Mark Anthony Group of Companies — the maker of White Claw — in a deal reported at $325 million. Mark Anthony had already served as the brand's exclusive Canadian distributor, and the deal marks the company's first major acquisition of a spirits-based rather than malt-based RTD brand. Co-founder Evan Burns will remain CEO.

The company's origins trace to 2014, when Finnish exchange students Sakari Manninen and Ere Partanen met Burns at a New York party and became friends. The group later convinced Burns to visit Finland, where he was introduced to the country's ubiquitous "long drink" — a gin, grapefruit soda, and carbonated water mix first created for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Recognizing that no single brand owned that story in the US market, Burns and his three Finnish friends — Manninen, Partanen, and Mikael Taipale — soft-launched The Finnish Long Drink in New York City in 2018.

The brand has grown rapidly since: 2025 sales reached 3.3 million nine-liter case equivalents, roughly 20% growth year-on-year, making it the sixth-largest spirit-based ready-to-drink brand in the US, now available in more than 50,000 locations across the US and Canada. Actor Miles Teller took a minority stake in 2019 and became a hands-on investor — increasing his stake over time, personally funding marketing expansion, and taking meetings with distributors directly. "I first came across Long Drink as a fan," Teller said following the sale, "it felt different from anything else out there."