Quebec’s Geloso Group says it will cease production of its sweetened alcoholic beverage FCKD UP.
In a statement released Sunday night, the beverage company said it ordered its employees to cease production of the drink immediately. The drink has an alcohol rate of 11.9 per cent.
Geloso introduced the drink in 2017 after a U.S. competitor introduced a sweetened alcoholic beverage in Quebec with an 11.9 per cent alcohol content named Four Loko.
The move to pull the drink comes shortly after Montreal’s La Presse reported that a 14-year-old girl had been drinking stolen cans of the sweetened alcoholic drink prior to her death.
“The Geloso Group has also taken concrete measures with its advertising to encourage responsible and legal consumption of its alcoholic beverages. The target audience for the marketing of this product has always been the 18-25 age group, excluding those not yet of legal drinking age,” Aldo Geloso, co-president of the Geloso Group said in a statement.
“All this being said, with hindsight, I think it was a mistake to enter this category to compete with Four Loko,” added Geloso.