Energy drink giant Celsius Holdings reports that sales are booming — jumping 137% in the second quarter year over year — and they’re expected to grow even more thanks to a $540 million investment from PepsiCo. John Fieldly, CEO of Celsius Holdings, joined Cheddar News to discuss what this investment will bring to Celsius. “This partnership is going to further expand us in convenience, food service and in college campuses,” he said. “We’re really excited about this partnership. The investment allows us for extra working capital and investment and really to disrupt the energy category.”


Closing Bell

PepsiCo Invests $540 Million in Energy Drink Maker Celsius Holdings

the energy drink category, one of the fastest growing in the beverage space. And our next guest has the sales numbers to prove it, Celsius Holdings reporting second quarter sales of 100 and 54 million. That's a 137% jump from the same time a year ago. It's sales only expected to grow after Pepsico last week announced a $550 million investment in the company. And joining me now is john field li ceo of Celsius Holdings, john congratulations on the announcement. Big news. What is driving the growth of your company that attracted Pepsi to make this move? Well, we're disrupting the energy category. That's for sure. Health and wellness. We're capitalizing on three of the fastest growing trends in food and beverage better for you. Celsius delivers on that with seven essential vitamins. We are aligned with today's health minded consumer. We also offer functionality. We all want more function in the foods and beverages we consume. We deliver on that with our clinically proven functionality of calorie burning, burning attributes and addition. We taste great with no crash and no jitters. So we've been expanding across the country and this partnership is going to bring us two more stores all across the US as well as globally. I want to know what that distribution plan is, john obviously it's a big portion of this major investment by Pepsi. Pepsi now the biggest shareholder in your company. When can we expect distribution to pick up? Yeah, you're gonna see distribution pick up over the next 12 to 24 months. We were born in the gyms and health clubs, vitamin specialty vitamin Shoppe and G. N. C. We've been expanding in grocery mass and club. This partnership is going to further expand its inconvenience food service and in college campuses. So we are really seeing our age demographic age down to 18 24 for his health mining consumers entering the category for the first time. So we're really excited about this partnership. The investment allows us for extra working capital and investment and really to disrupt the energy category. Lots of excitement where the number two energy drink brand on amazon and we're seeing our product is performing as one of the top performers. Many retailers in the country. Well investors rewarding your shares in the wake of this. The stock near an all time high. What's in it for Pepsi this deal? Yeah what's in it for? Pepsi is not only the investment attribute but it also provides them a leading opportunity to disrupt the energy category. So we will be one of the key partners in their portfolio, driving that better for you more functionality in the functional energy space that consumers are gravitating to. So it allows them a disruptive beverage really to drive their beverage portfolio not only in the U. S. But around the globe. Why is the energy drink space so hot? What do customers like about it? Well we're all doing more each and every day, working at home, working all around the clock, we all want more energy and we want better for you energy and with our green tea attributes and central vitamins, we deliver on that. You're seeing the csd or if you want to call it, the sugary soda drink category gets smaller each and other years consumers look for better for you options and the energy category continues to grow. It's been growing at about an 8% category over the last, you know, several years, 5 to 7 years and it's expected to grow that contain basis throughout 2027 according to Mintel. So lots of growth left in the category as well and we're capitalizing on it. So demand. Clearly there john and your company is a publicly traded one. So we've seen that in the numbers, we've seen that in the stock price as we've been discussing here. We know prices though for consumers going up still across the board, especially in that food category. Should consumers of your product, your energy drinks expect to pay more in the near future? Well, you are right, we're driving the category growth according to Nielsen data, which is the scan data at the register shows Celsius one of the top drivers in the energy category. And growth driving 35% of the growth. We are, our product is recently priced were priced anywhere between 2 39 and 2 79. We also variety packs as well and multi packs a bunch of fine retail across the country from 7 11 to publix to Kroger and amazon and Costco and Sam's as well as many others. So we're in line were in reach and we feel that consumers are willing to pay a premium for our product as well and it hasn't slowed us down yet. We're being cognizant. I know today everyone's talking about inflation, it's affecting all of us. It's something we're watching closely. But just to hone in on this john, I mean, I think a lot of people are looking at their wallets, they're digging, digging deeper and deeper into savings just really to get by and food is one of these essential categories as you sip the beverage there, can we expect price increases before year end for consumers trying to create a budget for the rest of the year so that they can set aside money to buy your products? Yeah, but what we see with our product, like an energy product or a coffee or Starbucks, you know, we're really part of a daily lifestyle and daily routine. And we see consumers, we expect consumers, we looked at prior slowdowns, they'll cut back on other items, you know, travel discretionary, spending maybe dessert at dinner, maybe you change some of your where you're going to go to dinner on the weekends. But we see that historically the energy category has little velocity levels or elasticity during the price price sensitivity situations with consumers are going into another recession. Talk as well. We're watching it really closely. Each recession is different, something paying very close attention to, But we do think we have extremely strong consumer that will continue to consume Celsius as part of their daily lifestyle and part of their daily routine. We're all about living fit and living healthy and Celsius means something great to all of our consumers. All right, I got to try an arctic vibe and peach vibe. I see in the background there on your website as well johN field, the Ceo of Celsius Holdings, john thanks so much for coming on. The show, cheers.