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Closing out eventful year, Celsius Holdings mustered pair of key acquisitions to report 117% jump in revenue to $721.6 mil, bringing full-year sales to $2.5 bil, up 86%. Last year's acquisitions first of Alani Nu and then of Rockstar left CELH as PepsiCo's category captain in energy drinks to tune of $5.2 bil in scanned retail sales via 250K+ tracked retail accts, for 20% share of category, as co reminded this morning. And it's riding host of tailwinds, including segment's tilt toward zero-sugar offerings, influx of regular female users into category, even softness in alcohol, which CEO John Fieldly said today is prompting convenience retailers to cut some of their cold beer space over to energy drinks. Noncarbs also seem to be coming on strong, as witnessed by Celsius' rollout of its Fizz Free subline early this year. As has been his penchant over past year, Fieldly sought to position Celsius and Alani as participating in "modern energy" segment in same way that Poppi and Olipop represent "modern soda." By the numbers, Q4 brought the more than doubling thanks to addition of Alani and Rockstar. Celsius brand itself, sidelined a bit because of integration activities, actually was off 7.7%, tho Fieldly said its 12.8% gain in retail scans signals that core brand remains on growth track. Co's still-modest international biz rose 9% to $22.1 mil as CELH and PEP take tempered approach to global buildout, working just 10 markets so far as new recruit Derrick Quigley assembles sales & marketing team to plot next expansion steps. Gross margin declined 2.8 pts to 47.4% as co spent heavily on integration costs and grappled with aluminum costs and Trump tariffs, tho CFO Jarrod Langhans said he anticipates return to "normalized" 50% this year and mid-50s isn't out of the question down the road. Operating income of $26.1 mil reversed year-earlier loss of $18.5 mil. Strong report prompted spike in share prices this morning, settling out at 6.5% gain as BBI was going to press.For full year, as noted, topline jumped 86% to $2.5 bil thanks to $1 bil of Alani Nu sales starting in Q2 and $55.6 mil of Rockstar sales starting in Q4. (Another $6 mil of Rockstar sales was squirreled away in "other income" for accounting reasons.) The Celsius brand itself grew 7.5% to $1.5 bil. Operating income narrowed 9.4% to $141.1 mil. Unlike many publicly reporting peers, Celsius refrains from offering any guidance on what new year is likely to bring in sales and earnings.Over past year, broad portfolio upped its total points of distribution by 15% to attain 99.5% ACV as it rode Pepsi system to retail ubiquity. By brand that comes to 98.5% ACV for Celsius, 92.6% for Alani and 85.4% for Rockstar, struggling brand that's in process of restage following ownership transfer to CELH. One early test of partners' tite integration was Alani Nu's first LTO, Cherry Bomb, which was depleted in record time, per CEO. Ensconced within blue system, Alani has enjoyed triple-digit growth during first 6-8 weeks of new year and is anticipated to score triple-digit space gains as retailer resets kick in. Tho Alani's load-in took a bite out of Celsius, Fieldly reminded that broad picture now is very different from 2H of 2024 and early 2025, when Celsius brand and category as a whole suffered uncharacteristic softness. The Q4 bump didn't stop Celsius brand from growing 7.5% for full year.$327M Tab for DSD Transition but Cutover Was Smooth Transition of Alani distribution from network of mainly beer houses to Pepsi bottling system had cost $327.5 mil in buyouts over course of Q3 and Q4 but quickly upped brand's availability from 87% in US/Canada at beginning of Q4 to 94.2% as of Feb 1. Fieldly thanked past and present distribution partners for making transition reasonably seamless. He said transition should be largely complete by end of this qtr. Rockstar's integration into Celsius Holdings should be completed by end of first half as co tries to figure out path forward for struggling un-modern brand long distributed by Pepsi. As noted, Alani's Cherry Bomb LTO offered one early test of partners' synergy, with new Lime Slush LTO now offering the next.Is Alcohol Pain Celsius' Gain? CEO Fieldly made case that ongoing retreat of alcohol is benefiting his co in a coupla ways. For one, some consumers are substituting energy drinks for alcohol in social occasions via recipes for Celsius mocktails and dirty Alanis. So after snatching lunch occasions from CSDs and other segments, Celsius sees this as new occasion into which energy category can grow. And retailers are reacting too, repurposing some of their beer space to energy drinks, including beer coolers in c-stores, a key growth channel for Celsius and Alani brands. It's not just beer that's relinquishing space: juice and premium water segments also have been under pressure, he said. By contrast, when Celsius was integrated into Pepsi system a few years ago, brand was at earlier stage of retail development and got much of its shelf space at expense of fast-declining Bang brand.In-House Brand Studio Among developments heralded by Fieldly has been establishment of in-house "brand studio" that enables co to more fully control marketing effort while trying to maintain each brand's distinct voice.

Celsius Doubles in Q4 as Alani Nu Addition Sizzles; Hiccup on Celsius Brand Due to Integration Effort; Are Energy Brands Snatching Occasions from Alcohol Now?

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