Celsius Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:CELH) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

John Fieldly: Yes, great question. It’s exciting because when you look at brand shifting, we’re not seeing a substantial amount of our growth coming from brand shifting. It really is incremental and it’s increasing the user intensification. Our core consumers are consuming more. And then, it’s about 35%, the latest data we had, is intensification of more consumption of our core or base. And then, new to category for us was 42%. And this was as of the end of March, so, really seeing then 23% brand shift, so we’re expanding the category. We’re changing the way consumers think about energy as well. And we’re seeing that, talk about Jersey Mikes and Dunkin’ Donuts and really the partnership with Pepsi allows us to take advantage of this opportunity we have with some of the most refreshed, we feel we have the most refreshing energy drinks in the world.

And it’s showing. We’re bringing new consumers. We’re growing a category. We got a lot of great attributes within the brand. We look at better for you trends. Celsius has over seven essential vitamins. You look at how we all want our foods and beverages to have more function. Celsius delivers on that with our thermogenic properties. And then, you also look at fitness, this health and wellness trend, and we’re all about living fit and living life to the fullest. So, I think we’re really well positioned. And we haven’t really seen that change within the user intensification, as well as the increase to new to category over the last six to almost a year now.

John Andersen: Right. That’s helpful. And on these 33 or so drill down markets, can you talk about what you’re doing there that are 31 drill deep markets, what you’re doing there that’s different at present, and kind of what you’re expecting in terms of I guess maybe share results as a measuring stick. Thanks.

John Fieldly: Yes. Yes, I think, well, you talked about household penetration and that shows as we’ve continued to drive forward with our targeted marketing programs and as well as our distribution games, our household penetration has reached an all-time high most recently at a 29.7% household penetration. So, really proud of the team and all the hard work they’ve been doing. We take an approach of a drill deep strategy. We’re not going to get into specific strategies because a lot of competitors are listening on the call, but we have a proprietary blend of a special formula here, which starts with the employee and a great product that we promote and market. And it’s all about touching consumers where they live, work, and play, creating awareness, creating trial, and then creating loyalty.

John Andersen: Thanks.

Operator: Our next question comes from Peter Grom from UBS. Your line is now open.

Peter Grom: Hey guys, can you hear me now?

John Fieldly: Yes, we can hear you.

Peter Grom: Excellent. All right, cool. So, I guess just a couple of follow-ups here. Just in terms of the inventory dynamic, Jarrod, can you just remind us what we’re kind of comping against from a year-ago perspective? Like, I get you might not have visibility on what Pepsi might do or how to manage it sequentially, but when we just think about how this dynamic evolved last year, I think it was kind of held in 2Q, grew again in 3Q. So, just should we expect kind of this gap versus standard data to kind of continue as we move through the year, or would you expect it to kind of be more aligned at this point?

Jarrod Langhans: Yes, I mean, remember we were just getting started last year, and so we’re still learning each other. And obviously as everybody in CPG, it’s all about optimizing the supply chain to make sure we’re spending our dollars wisely. So, we did see some buildup in Q1, like we talked about, roughly $25 million. Across Q2 and Q3, we saw some minor buildup, and it kind of stuck steady for kind of Q2, Q3, Q4. To Mark’s earlier point, there was some innovation in there, so that could have maybe there would have been some inventory taken down in Q4 if it weren’t for that, and as they were optimizing. And then, across Q1, clearly there’s been some optimization occurring. Again, no issue with having product on the shelf, and we do have KPIs that we work together to maintain in terms of service standards.

And so, we have no complaints there. And we’re fully — I believe they’re fully committed. We’re fully committed. So, we’re very happy with how things are going there. But if there’s opportunity to optimize, like John said, we’ll do it. And they’re welcome to do it too. So, I think what I mentioned with April is the days on hand that we saw kind of in March kind of were maintained in April, but the consumer’s there. If they can maintain inventory levels and keep the product on the shelf, then that’s — we’re comfortable with that.

Peter Grom: Okay, great. And then, just following up on kind of the shelf resets and kind of the market share metrics you mentioned. I think you said a third of the shelf resets were done by March. I mean, when did those actually take place in one queue? I’m just trying to understand whether there’s a benefit including kind of these four-week share figures that you mentioned on the four-queue call. I think it was the same 11.5% that you mentioned in the latest four weeks today. So, shares kind of on a monthly basis held steady, and then, I think as we look ahead, is there anything you can share in terms of the phasing of the benefits? I know you touched on, but we won’t see the full benefits until July, but kind of where are we now in the first week of May? What’s really the progression look like? And is there really any way to put into context what you actually expect in terms of track growth or market share performance as these resets happen? Thanks.