Katie Perry (00:00):
I'm Katie Perry.
Austin Hankwitz (00:01):
And I'm Austin Hankwitz. And this is After Earnings, the show from Morning Brew and Stakeholder Labs that brings investors up close and personal with the executives behind the world's most interesting companies.
Katie Perry (00:12):
Today we're talking with John Fieldly, the CEO of Celsius, who by the way was two Celsius deep in starting the interview. Celsius is a lifestyle energy drink with zero sugar performance-based ingredients and a whole range of flavors from peach vibe to orange marshmallow, a lot of things in between.
Austin Hankwitz (00:31):
And Katie, we had a blast. I mean, we covered their turnaround story from being delisted from the NASDAQ's now becoming a billion dollar brand, how they approach coming up with new flavors and products, new products that might be around the corner in 2024 and beyond, as well as John's favorite celebrity Celsius supporter. You guys are not going to want to miss this interview. So with that being said, let's jump into it. John, thanks so much for hanging out with us today on this episode of After earnings. Really excited to have you here. Glad
John Fieldly (01:00):
To be here. Got a nice cold Celsius too. Let's
Austin Hankwitz (01:02):
Go. Yeah, I just cracked mine open as well. How many Celsius are you deep today? 1, 2, 3.
John Fieldly (01:07):
It's been a busy day. We at a town hall meeting with the team, so we're We're too deep right now.
Katie Perry (01:12):
Yes,
Austin Hankwitz (01:12):
Two deep right now. I love it. Now good question. Is it Celsius? What's plural? Celsius? Is it Celsius is CELs. How do I tell someone I've had more than one Celsius today?
John Fieldly (01:23):
Oh man. It's however you explain it or say it. That's the way to go. So we got great flavors. I could have as many had two Celsius today, so we're rocking and rolling.
Katie Perry (01:33):
I'm so glad to hear that because I've been saying CELs, it gets a scientific term and I'm just going to keep doing that now that you said I could do whatever I want. Absolutely,
John Fieldly (01:44):
Absolutely.
Katie Perry (01:45):
John, it's so funny. The other day I was looking up a playlist for the gym and I randomly was like, I'm just going to search the word Celsius. Are you aware that there's hundreds of playlists that have Celsius in the title on Spotify?
John Fieldly (01:59):
No, I'm not. I got to check that out.
Katie Perry (02:00):
Really, really fun. Great playlists. So we got to ask you what would be three must have songs or artist on your Celsius playlist?
John Fieldly (02:10):
On my Celsius playlist? So many different artists out there. I think we just did a partnership with two friends, so we got to listen to some of their music. You got to go pit pit bull. We'll go with, got to go with some Miami vibes as well. So we're down here in South Florida. All right,
Katie Perry (02:26):
Little EDM maybe.
John Fieldly (02:28):
Yeah, why not? Why not? Little bit of everything.
Katie Perry (02:30):
Love it. Love it.
Austin Hankwitz (02:32):
That's awesome. So I'm sure you guys know this, but you actually share a name with a very controversial crypto company who I actually lost money to back in the day, but we thought before we jump into the interview, it'd be actually kind of funny to look up past trademark filings for the name Celsius. So real quick, John, which of these products do you think is not made by a company who filed for a trademark with the name Celsius in the past? Is it a tanning salon company B antifreeze company or see a semiconductor company
John Fieldly (03:03):
Semiconductor.
Austin Hankwitz (03:04):
Ding, ding, ding John for the win. Oh my goodness, I'm
John Fieldly (03:08):
On a roll today. All
Austin Hankwitz (03:09):
That on the sales. Alright, so let's kick off this interview talking about the incredible growth story you've seen now as a company, right? You guys have grown market share a bunch. You're officially a billion dollar brand. You all went from a, what the heck is a Celsius to now officially crossing that coveted 10% market share threshold now sitting at about 10.5%. Bank of America is modeling for a 14% market share capture by the end of this year. So what would you say has catalyzed this market share expansion over the last couple years? Has it improved distribution via Pepsi? Is it top of funnel marketing? Is it a mix of the two?
John Fieldly (03:49):
Yeah, no, I mean, getting to a 10 shares is practically near impossible in the energy category and we have not only got to 10 share, but we've been really working hard and gaining more distribution and the latest data has us right around 11 shares, so tons of momentum behind the brand. It's really has to do, as you mentioned, top funnel, being able to connect with consumers, creating that awareness, creating that trial, and then also that loyalty behind the product and it's consumer health and wellness trends over the years. And then most importantly over the last 15 months, it's really been the distribution. So we just anniversary our one year anniversary with Pepsi as a distribution partner in North America in October, and that has really allowed us to scale to almost a 98% a CV, so we should be in almost every single store around the country. Big opportunity right now is working with retailers for the upcoming resets to really gain the better placement in the retailers additional flavors. We got some great innovation coming as well.
Katie Perry (04:46):
Yeah. John, it sounds like you have a loyal following, but also in your category there's this concept of an impulse buy and it seems like that's why being, as you say on the earnings call everywhere your consumers are is so important. Can you talk about some of the places that are really vital to continue growth in it from a distribution standpoint?
John Fieldly (05:05):
Yeah, I mean you mentioned kind of getting to that 10 share is really important. If you go prior to Pepsi and before we were with Pepsi, we had a variety of independent distribution partners, but a lot of our sales were coming in as warm. We're one of a top performing beverage within energy on Amazon right now. We're the number one energy drink on Amazon in the category that we reported on our earnings call. But when you look at that, a lot of our consumers are buying the product warm. They're taking it home and having as part of a daily lifestyle and daily routine, and that goes back to our, we're really big in grocery, we were in Target, we've been in Walmart about two years and really taking advantage of that impulse purchase and that's what Pepsi has really allowed us to do. You're right, energy drinks are an impulse purchase, it's a need state, you need a function, you're able to take advantage of that because we had access to these front checkout coolers getting more cooler placements. We placed over 10,000 coolers last year and Pepsi has added us to a variety of their coolers. So impulse purchases is something that we haven't been able to capture in a really substantial way versus now we're able to capture a lot of that impulse purchase. So that has projected the company to that 10 share and we got a lot of hard work and a lot of opportunity going forward
Katie Perry (06:21):
And pivoting to some of these marketing partnerships that you all have been talking about, can you walk us through your framework for selecting which brands, sports properties, personalities you want to align with as a company and how you think about those partnerships, how you approach them and bring them to life? Yeah.
John Fieldly (06:39):
Well one thing, I mean when you have a really consumer product offering like Celsius, we were born in the gym, so historically, if you go back, we've really focused this brand at Vitamin Shop g and c, Gold's Gym, 24 hour Equinox really focusing with this community and due to the health and wellness trends continue to evolve, the number of gym memberships continue to grow, the number of gym opportunities grew. If you look at Barry's Bootcamp, we're a big supporter of them and really, really fitness has become an entertainment vehicle when you really think about it, people used to go to the gym back in the day for a particular reason. Now you're going to the gym to really meet people. It's a place to be seen, it's a place to hang out. There's smoothie bars, there's lounges. It's really a part of a daily lifestyle and we've been able to activate that through Celsius with our live fit mantra providing additional thermogenic properties.
(07:29)
It's helping your body accelerate metabolism and also promoting fat burning, which has been key to our health and fitness community. And then as we've scaled and grow over the years, we've really leveraged those trends and broadening really unique flavors right next to me, we talk about some of our new innovation here. We have our really space theme. So I got cosmic vibe that we launched last year and this year we're launching Galaxy Vibe and Astro Vibe, which are really refreshing, unique flavors that bring you on an experience on every sip. And that has allowed us to expand further and broader than just the fitness channel and really going after the larger opportunity, which is people looking for energy, wanting a refreshing product, but then also wanting great function. And that's what keeps them loyal because of our great flavors and the experience you feel on the product, the product actually makes you feel good. It's zero sugar and got over 2.8 grams of vitamins in it. Green tea Ana and biotin I,
Austin Hankwitz (08:21):
You guys did a really, really great job of if it's the specific bootcamp, if it's college, different types of universities you guys are at. And even like Jake Paul, I think you guys have a really cool partnership with Jake Paul. I think he just fought now in Puerto Rico. Did you happen to catch that fight?
John Fieldly (08:36):
Yeah, I did. And we look about the DNA of the brand and going back to how we pick our partners, when we look at that, you're looking at partners that resonate with the overall core brand attributes and what we really go it's fitness lifestyle. So when you go to Jake Paul, you talk about an athlete, he's an amazing athlete. He's looking to be a global boxing icon with some of the fights and he is really working towards that. Also working with the Olympics. So he fits into the DNA of Living fits Celsius is all about aspiring you to live your best life inside and outside the gym and accomplish your goals. And we just partnered with F1 with Ferrari, which is a great premium brand as well because we're a premium brand in the energy category. And when you look at that brand that offers us really it's our first global partnership that we will be able to leverage on a global basis and no better.
(09:26)
I mean if you think about the drivers and F1 and the work that's required, it is truly a physical activity. You really need to be on your peak performance in order to drive those vehicles and put those cars on the track and all the work required. We partner with MLS, the World Cups coming to the us. That's going to be super exciting on the timing and no one better needs essential energy than soccer players in the us. There's so much activity, so much running. We partnered initially with Inner Miami Mess, has joined the team, created a lot of buzz around MLS around the league. It's just been an exciting time. So when we go back, we always go back on partnerships and look at our core, right? Our core DNA is fitness, health and wellness, living fit and inspiring people to live their best life to accomplish their goals inside, outside the gym. So we take that to the core and then we look at our partnerships on what best resonates with the brand and how we go after our communities. So with MLS, it's an 18 to 24 Gen Z, that's a really big segment within MLS and continues to grow and we see a lot of opportunities. We're incremental to the energy category because bringing new consumers in for the first time. So that's how we go about picking some of our partnerships internally.
Austin Hankwitz (10:35):
You guys have done an incredible job with that and you keep mentioning live fit. Live fit, I love that because as you look at competitors like Red Bull for example, they've got 20 plus grams of sugar inside of their 8.4 ounce drinks and I'd argue that the zero sugar aspect of your beverages were even a major catalyst for growth. As more and more Americans try and steer clear of that. So why do you think Celsius was able to really capitalize on this trend successfully while maybe some of your competitors falled flat on the face?
John Fieldly (11:03):
Well, it's interesting. So for the first time in the category you're going to see the category flipping for the first time when you just think about energy drinks, you think your average energy drink is really loaded with sugar, like you mentioned historically, that has been very true this year in 2024, the categories in a flip for the first time where the majority of the sales are greater than 50% will be sugar-free offerings. And if you look back over the last several years, that trajectory has grown each and every year and has really allowed Celsius to compete in the total energy category. So when you look at zero sugar is key, health and wellness is key. I think coming out of a post covid world as well, when people are really paying attention what you put in your body, you need to stay active, you want your body at the peak performance, you need to watch what you eat.
(11:47)
I think that's really helped everyone really pay attention to what we're putting in our bodies and allowed Celsius because we have green tea, we have ginger and biotin, like I mentioned the B complexes, vitamin C, a lot of great ingredients in it which differentiates the product versus some of the other main competitors in the category. Celsius is now the third largest energy drink in the category. So it's really a three team race right now as we go. And what's also interesting is with our unique flavors, what we're seeing with Celsius is that the product our consumers are consuming Celsius also outside of that traditional energy drink usage occasion. So we just partnered with Jersey Mike's last year, just expanded into Dunking Donuts, about 3000 locations and we see it all the time in the office. But what PepsiCo really opened up this opportunity of food service for us, which we see a great runway of growth and opportunities going forward, is expanding that usage cage and really going after almost total beverage because people see Celsius, we got great flavors, we have a refreshing watermelon, lemon, lime, I mean some really good refreshing flavors, Kiwi guava, but you mentioned Peach five earlier as we were prepping, getting started with the call.
(12:52)
I mean just really great refreshing flavors that pair really nicely. Weed food. So essence, we are sold in the energy category. We provide great healthy energy, but we're going after total beverage right now.
Katie Perry (13:03):
You talk about the flavors love and yeah, we were going around about the flavors before and super curious around product development over there. What does this look like? Because some of the flavors are very surprising. There's marshmallow mandarin, I just saw on your screen the raspberry lemon, which was delightful. How does the team work on these things? Where do you get your ideas and inspiration from?
John Fieldly (13:29):
Well, we really run a cross-functional organization. So within new flavors they come from all over the organization. We launched Tropical Vibe, which is a star Fruit pineapple because we had an employee, we have these innovation meetings, so we bring teams from a variety of individuals from all over Random will just say, Hey, we're going to have an innovation meeting, would you like to join? Come up with some concepts on why your flavor resonates, why we should do it next. One individual came with a star fruit, they found it on their walk, talked about star fruit trends, had some concepts of different flavors and we're like, all right, let's try it. Then we got their creative team involved and came up with some concepts in regards to tropical vibe and so that's how that flavor was born. We've come up with just, I know there's a lot of scientifics.
(14:10)
We do get stats on flavor trends that are out there, but to be honest with you, most of the flavors come from our cross-functional team that meets and comes up with some really great flavors and justifies why the company, the team should launch it and get behind it. Then we flavor test, flavor test flavor test, and then we kind of sell it internally to each other and we sign up for it and go. So it's not complete science. We do have a process, but it's a lot of internal cross-functional teams, meaning everyone from finance, hr, shipping, logistics, marketing, side field, marketing, sales, we bring everyone together. How
Katie Perry (14:44):
About from some of the brand super fans? I've legitimately had a conversation before with friends about which flavors we would like to see and FYI, I'm just going to give you this freebie. Spirulina would be great, but I noticed I was looking on Twitter, there's so many organic mentions of people talking about the brand. Do you ever get ideas from what people are saying out there and they might not know you're listening?
John Fieldly (15:08):
Absolutely. So we always take input. We have consumer cares line people, we get flavor requests from their social media. Our social media team's always on the lookout. Anyone has any flavor suggestions, DM us on Instagram and we'll definitely put it into the mix so you'll never know what's next.
Austin Hankwitz (15:23):
Alright John, so here's my next little game show question for you. I need you to rank three things in order of the potential products of their likelihood to actually come about. The first one is a low caffeine Celsius version. The second one is an alcoholic Celsius version, and the third one is a hydration focused Celsius ranked one through three. Which one of these are most likely to come about as a potential product?
John Fieldly (15:49):
We got so many ideas and concepts definitely on the bottom is an alcoholic Celsius. We don't see ourselves really moving in that direction, but hydration is something we talk about all the time and lowering the caffeine and also coming out maybe craft sodas that can be great with some of our great flavors is something we talk about all the time. We're really big right now and are just starting to get more involved in mocktails. We see a great opportunity leveraging mocktails, sober curious in January was a big thing. We tested at a variety of different bars and restaurants with great success. So it could be further opportunities to dial the caffeine down and come up with great concepts for mocktails and also maybe craft soda and play in that category. I
Austin Hankwitz (16:26):
Love how you guys are thinking about that, right? Dried January was huge amongst my friends. I'm 27 so a lot of us are drinking, having a good time, but we also said, wait a second, maybe we should cool it down here in January. So I'm right there with you, man. I'll be keeping my eye out for the Celsius mocktail at home kit. That's pretty cool. So moving now to financials and earnings and things like that. Pepsi invested 550 million into your company and you guys immediately unlocked an additional, I think it was 42,000 locations in three months and now this figure stands at hundreds of thousands of locations. So I'm curious as it relates to 2024 specifically, what are some growth levers you're looking forward to as it relates to this relationship with Pepsi to expect now over the coming months? Well,
John Fieldly (17:10):
When you look at the partnership, I think there's a couple of things. So keep in mind when I just mentioned we crossed our one year anniversary in October, so we were kind of forced into their system at the tail end. So we're working more on a regional level. We're working with their strategic planning on a holistic level on annual plans. So this year will be our first year working with them with timing and sequencing and part of their annual operating plans. So what that means is we'll get focus periods. So we're really excited about these focus periods on a national level so we can execute against that as F1 programs with some of our great big bets for next year on a holistic level to really maximize the distribution effort and all the staff and sales team, they have to focus on Celsius as a priority for a period of time and we're going to get a variety of those throughout the year.
(17:54)
So I think the better planning, we have PepsiCo plans really far in advance. We were very nimble and quick prior. We're getting better each day on our planning and this year I think we're really focused. We have great plans, we mapped them out and wired those with Pepsi. So we're going to get great execution this year that we weren't able to do before. In addition, I think what you're doing now is if you go back prior to the partnership with Pepsi to where we are now, we talked about the 10 share, we're negotiating space right now with buyers and retailers at a 10 share brand that's contributing to growth not only in dollars in units, so really bringing in new consumers to the category. So what that tells you is you need to carry more Celsius and we got some great opportunities, great innovation. We just launched a brand new 16 ounce as well, a Celsius essentials line, which has been incremental at seven 11 and we see great opportunities for that. It's at an 40% a CV right now. So it's really about gaining incremental shelf space in our existing accounts, better shelf place, better presence, secondary placements with displays and activation. So that's going to be the real big opportunity to unlock really the further increase the opportunities for trial. And we know when we get trial we get loyalty because of our great flavors and we get those repurchases. So that's really the second unlock. And number three is driving further efficiencies through our organization, through our supply chain, really looking for those opportunities.
Austin Hankwitz (19:17):
I love it. You mentioned Jersey Mike's and Dunking Donuts and some of these really big household names. Are there any massive names that you guys might be announcing here some partnerships with as it relates to distribution in 2024 that I should keep an eye out for?
John Fieldly (19:33):
Yeah, there's tons of opportunities out there and we're always talking, we're building on our food service team, nothing we've disclosed yet. We're a public company, so we will see what happens in the future once we get listed. We'll be more than happy to share, but lots of opportunities, but you never know we're working hard.
Austin Hankwitz (19:49):
That's good man.
Katie Perry (19:50):
John, on the efficiencies point is the way you think about this alongside the high growth, I know you used to be CFO, how are you balancing that super high growth? You want to have your foot on the gas with making sure that you're getting the most out of every channel and partner?
John Fieldly (20:08):
Yeah, I mean it's a balancing act. There's no way the growth that we have, you're going to drive this type of efficiency. So you're really willing to give up margin to really make sure you're maximizing the value creation on top line revenue share and those gains. So when we look at it, I mean our focus is always profitable growth, so we're really focused on that, but we're willing to give up some margin in order to drive greater share, greater greater sales, increase greater trial to for the future. So it's a balancing act and it's something we work on each and every day. It's pricing, architecture strategies, promotional strategies, channel strategies, and really trying to drive efficiencies through supply chain. But with the growth you're having as well, there's areas that you're inefficient in your supply chain because you don't want to run out of stock, you just need to get the product there, you need to produce it.
(20:55)
It might be not produced in the right location, but at the end of the day you need to fill orders to maintain that shelf space because once you run out of out of shelf space, you run out of stock that is a detriment to the, you'll lose your space. It's so difficult in the beverage industry to get shelf space. You run out of stock, you'll lose it, competitors will move in. It could take you six months to get the shelf space back or maybe you got to wait until the next reset to the retailer. Yeah,
Katie Perry (21:18):
The shopper marketing component is super interesting. I think a lot of us who are in these stores don't realize what goes into how you discover products at a store. You mentioned pricing and on your earnings call you talked about wanting to be a premium price product. Can you give us a little more color on what you mean by that?
John Fieldly (21:36):
Yeah, I mean you see, I mean we're priced a lot of times we're priced in between Red Bull and Monster Monster or Red Bull does lead the pricing category. What we do see us as a premium player with premium ingredients, there's opportunities down the road for price. We do have a pricing promotional strategy talk about, we do a variety of promotions. The category is about very promotional, about 26, 26 weeks a year on promotion on average if not more. And when you talk about the opportunity to get trial, having a promotional sale allows that trial to create that loyalty. So those are things that it's a balancing act as we continue to navigate, keep in mind your average consumer when you're going into a retailer, you probably have maybe 30 seconds at best to try to capture that consumer that's going in for an offering, an energy drink or some type of a beverage. So it's important that you continue to market, have better improve your placements to capture that initial trial
Austin Hankwitz (22:31):
You get on that one. Katie, you want me to follow to my question about Red Bull? Yeah. Cool. Alright. Excuse me John. So I know Red Bull just announced a price increase that took effect, I think it was January 1st of this year, and I think even Monster Energy mentioned a price increase just last week on their earnings call. So to me it seems like you guys have a great excuse to follow suit, increased prices of your own to further increase prices of your own, to further validate this premium product. Could that maybe support a 50% margin in 25 and beyond? I
John Fieldly (23:02):
Think there's a lot of opportunities on pricing. I think what you're hearing from Red Bull and Monster, what they're talking about is maybe a frontline price increase, but then you deal down and you do a variety of promotional strategies. So there's ways to get additional pricing and enhancement without officially taking frontline pricing. There's a variety of different levers. There's the cost of paying for what we call slotting fees in the beverage industry that come off of revenue that's really paying for additional space and retailers. There's tons of different drivers to really drive margin as well as cost savings on the supply chain side and driving efficiencies. So we've always said that we feel upon scale there's opportunities to get to a margin similar to our peer group that we're competing with and we do look at Monster as our closest peer to us. Now, how
Austin Hankwitz (23:45):
Do you guys think about pricing as it relates to entering new markets, right? You guys are now entering Canada, the UK and Ireland. How are you kind of doing that research on pricing, consumer demand, maybe even the regulatory environment?
John Fieldly (23:58):
Yeah, there's a lot involved, a lot of team members involved in that. Of course, regulatory are using agencies, you're using attorneys, regulatory experts to make sure products is compliant. Each country is different rules, regulations, labeling, even potential ingredients, bottle bill fees, recycling charges. There's just a lot of regulatory as well as taxes potentially involved. So really need to do your proper due diligence when entering new markets. And then on your pricing, there needs to be a whole pricing architecture strategy. Like I said, we want to be priced somewhere in between Red Bull and Monster. So it's evaluating where the category's priced, what are the promotional strategies. You don't want to be an outlier, right? You want to be somewhat competitive in the category. So really making sure you got your proper homework. Each market's a little different based on pack size, a variety of different things can affect pricing and your strategies there. Those are things we continue to analyze.
Katie Perry (24:50):
Canada being an example of a market relatively similar to the us I know you guys are just getting going there. Any anecdotal insights or data from how that's going so far? I did see somebody on social media snap a photo of Celsius at a Walmart, so know that's there. Talk us through that.
John Fieldly (25:09):
Yeah, we wound up shipping our first orders into Canada to our Pepsi distribution partner who's servicing all the channels. We launched in seven 11 as well as Kush charge, which is Circle K. And it's been great initial rollout's still early. We're only in, call it eight to 12 weeks, so just getting some data back. But sales have been performing much better than initially anticipated on a rollout. We're watching it closely. You mentioned Walmart, so we're starting to gain additional broader distribution outside of those two key retailers we partnered with, but I think it's too early to really know, but I think it's meeting all of our internal expectations and more
Katie Perry (25:48):
And we've been looking ahead, but I think now we want to look back for a little bit because I don't think many people know who've come on this new wave of investing in your company, consuming your company. You've actually been publicly traded since 2006 and there was a moment in which the company was delisted in 2012. You come in 2017. Can you give us that story of what you came into and when you first looked around, what were the key things you wanted to improve upon taking over as CEO?
John Fieldly (26:20):
Yeah. Well actually I joined in 2012 as the CFO when they were delisted. So I joined at a time when it was on the OTC markets with the stop sign that says stay away. And I think six months in, it was six months in, it was greater than 50% of our revenue was coming from Costco. We got delisted from Costco and a variety of other retailers during that time. So 2012 was kind of a really dark time, a reset. I worked with Jerry David, the prior CEO. I worked closely with him at a prior company order, so I joined him to help turn the business around. So it's really looking at fundamentals. Where's the product? Who's the consumer? This product, who's consuming it now? Why are they consuming it and how we can build upon that. And we really launched this product really focusing on in the HBC, so the health and beauty sets of grocery stores focusing on folks that were looking for health and wellness and really focusing on ultimately their weight loss initially and the product that lasted for several years.
(27:19)
And then we realized we had a great amazing energy drink on our hands, especially looking at comments and we repositioned the product several times. I did take over, like you mentioned in 2017 when Jerry retired and we further leveraged this opportunity and really drove this Celsius live fit essential energy mantra as a fitness lifestyle brand and really rode the trends of health and wellness and fitness and the growth of fitness to really differentiate the brand in the category as it's better for you energy drink. And we've been able to just capture more and more consumers and as a broader positioning than we had prior on the initial start. And it's constantly evaluating who is the consumer, why are they consuming it, how do we become part of a daily lifestyle and daily routine. I mean that's the most important thing. So you don't want to just be a one-off, especially as a consumer product.
(28:12)
We need to be part of a daily lifestyle and a daily routine. And most importantly, we want to build the company, even though it's a beverage, it can't be about what the liquid is, it needs to be bigger than that. What we need to do is build a global iconic brand. And when you see Celsius and you see our logo and Celsius live fit, it's more, it says something more about you than the liquid in the can. When you show up to a meeting, you have a Celsius, it says something about you, it says, versus when you show up to a meeting with a Red Bull that could say something about you. If you show up to a meeting with a monster, it could say something about you. It's the same reason why people wake up over an hour early to stand in the Starbucks line and we will wait in that line for an hour and a half and get their Starbucks and they go in because it says something about who you are. It's like the threads on your back, it's the shoes you wear, it's your clothes. That's how you build a global iconic brand. So we've been working on that as well along the way and that's what we've always aspired to and it's coming together. I mean you talk to a lot of our fans and Celsius is a cultural brand now. It's more than the liquid in the can, which is just really exciting to see, especially with the 18 to 24 crowd.
Katie Perry (29:21):
One thing you touched on there that I thought was interesting is it seems like there's seasons to being a CEO and eras, if you will, and you came in at this turnaround stage and now you're in a growth stage. Can you shed some light on what you need to level up during certain stages or what changed in your role going from to the other?
John Fieldly (29:42):
I mean a lot has changed along the way. We constantly restructured our team several times in my role, it's taking more of a coaching role. I think that has been something that's really changed my role from, especially in the earlier days when you had a smaller team, it was a lot really working closely with the teams and helping them really understand the strategy and identifying the opportunities to create results, to create trial, to create awareness, to create loyalty. A lot of my job and function now is a lot of working with the team still and validating, but also most importantly coaching. What is the company doing? Why are we doing this? Why is the brand who it is? Why is it connected with consumers working with teams on data? We have so much data now that FL data analytics team, having that data come in and working with the teams closely on how do we better leverage data. The data we had in 2017, it's totally different than the data we have today, which is quite amazing. But the same thought process needs to hold true. How is it connecting with consumers? How do we continue to project move Celsius forward? And most importantly, how do we better partner with our consumers and our customers?
Austin Hankwitz (30:54):
Speaking of customers and walking into a meeting holding Celsius and being perceived as something versus walking into a meeting holding a monster or a red bull. When I think of someone walks in holding a monster, I'm like, your name's probably Kyle and you skateboard, right? And so when I think a Celsius, I get the exact sort of opposite, right? Living fit something I think you guys did a great job on kind finding those customers are women. I mean, let's be real monster in Red Bull. And when I think of that, I think of Red Bull does a lot of extreme sports advertising monsters like dirt bikes and skateboarding where when I think of Celsius, I mean for example, I was getting my hair cut by my hairdresser named Taryn and I was telling her I was going to do this interview. She's like, oh my gosh, I love my Celsius. And she opened up her mini fridge and there's 17 of them in there. You guys have really resonated with women. Is there any sort of strategy around that? How did that happen? I mean I think that's just a wonderful thing that an energy drink company that's really never before seen doing something like that.
John Fieldly (31:50):
Yeah, I mean we're actually a little bit more male right now than historically. We've been about 50 50 due to our distribution expansion and convenience. We're a little bit higher than 50% male, but do have a heavy female following as you mentioned. And it's about staying true. I mean, health and wellness is universal. It doesn't matter who you are, right? And everyone wants to live life to the fullest and within the DNA of the brand want great flavor, want to feel better. So it's really universal. It's actually global trends. If you think about what Celsius is doing, we're capitalizing on three of the fastest growing trends in food and beverage. And everyone wants better for you, but they don't want to sacrifice flavor. So we have over seven essential vitamins. We taste great, we zero sugar, we hit those attributes. Number two, we all want more function in the foods and beverages we consume. Celsius does more than just provide you energy, also provides these other thermogenic properties, helps you achieve your health and wellness goals. And then number three, fitness is hip, cool, sexy, and premium. When you look at it, if you go back, I mean workout wear used to be only where in the gyms now you'll wear it to the mall, you wear it. I mean you see it all over the place. So this is part of culture and we've been able to capitalize on those trends as we've gone through this journey. Looking at the opportunities. Well,
Austin Hankwitz (33:04):
Speaking of culture, I think that something that Covid sort of catalyze in our culture is retail investors, right? There's a ton of people on these retail investing apps now who own stock in Celsius. So I'm curious, right? You think about Celsius investors are probably some of your biggest customers and they're your biggest fans, right? Own stock and things that you love and know. What are you doing now to deepen that relationship, if anything? Is there something that you all have even thought about as it relates to rewarding them or communicating with them? Well,
John Fieldly (33:34):
I think there's definitely opportunities. I think they're always investing in what you know and is really important. We try to do outreaches and go to investor conferences, we do quarterly earnings calls. We're doing outreach and it's a variety of ways to communicate with your investors, but there's no better than an investor who's also a consumer and a big advocate of the brand that helps us communicate all the great things about Celsius.
Austin Hankwitz (33:57):
Hey, well listen John, I got 50 shares, so I'm on the ride with you, my friend, and I'm drinking the Celsius, so let's run baby.
John Fieldly (34:06):
Let's go. Cheers to that.
Katie Perry (34:07):
John, speaking of people who love your brand, I saw that Jonah Hill once said that Celsius was one of the top things he could not live without. Which celebrity or public figure would you most be excited to hear that from? Not Jonah Hill.
John Fieldly (34:23):
Oh yeah, Jonah Hill is awesome. I mean, what's interesting, we just had that we're at Arnold. I don't know if you know about the Arnold Classic, but it's a of the biggest fitness shows in the us, major presence there. It was awesome to see Arnold in our booth drinking a Galaxy vibe. I mean he smiled, it was like it. He loved it. So how did
Katie Perry (34:42):
He pronounce?
John Fieldly (34:43):
I say Arnold to see him drink. It was awesome.
Katie Perry (34:45):
How did he pronounce Galaxy Vibe? Can you do it? I'm trying to bait you into an Austrian accent. Awesome. Alright, so Arnold's your guy, that's your pick?
John Fieldly (34:55):
I think so. I think so. Yeah. Terminator.
Katie Perry (34:57):
Yeah, that's a good one. Why not? I feel like when I have Celsius, I run that Android guy on the Terminator, so I feel like that's a good, I like it. Yeah.
Austin Hankwitz (35:05):
What an awesome interview. John, we really appreciate you joining us on this episode of After Earnings and we look forward to having you back here very soon.
John Fieldly (35:12):
Excellent. Thank you for having us. Really appreciate it. Cheers. Cheers
Katie Perry (35:16):
Man. Thanks
Austin Hankwitz (35:16):
John. Alright, Katie, I am now myself. A whole SIUs deep feeling. Good. Ready to walk through the debrief. What was your favorite part about that interview with John?
Katie Perry (35:25):
Most importantly, I think John answered the question that's on everyone's mind, which is what is the plural of Celsius? So tune in for that. I also really enjoyed him talking about the importance of distribution, their Pepsi partnership, how important that is to a product that is really an impulse buy in a lot of cases. And then how we talked about building a community from there. How about you Austin? What'd you take away from that interview?
Austin Hankwitz (35:51):
Yeah, I really liked the community aspect. I think it was Katie when I was thinking about what he said. When you walk into a meeting holding a Celsius versus a Red Bull versus a Monster Energy drink, what people think about you, I've never thought about that, but he's completely true. We all sort of have these inherent biases as like, oh, you're drinking a monster, you're drinking a Red Bull. I always have positive vibes whenever see someone drinking a Celsius just to the point it means you're living fit, you're clean, you're very active in your life. I think they've done an incredible job of building that brand nationwide and I'm eager to see how they'll be able to sort of transform that and migrate that into, what is it now, Canada, Ireland, and the uk. And I just really want to give 'em flowers. I mean, I'm pretty positive that Red Bull and Monster have a 75% market share on just energy drinks in general.
(36:39)
And they've gone from non-existent to now, I think he said 11%, right? Bank of America is projecting 14% by the end of this year. So they're doing a lot of things right and I'm eager to see what other partnerships they've got around the corner. He mentioned Formula One and Ferrari. He talked about soccer, talked a little bit about boxing with Jake Paul. I mean, it's all over college campuses. So what a great interview with John here. And I definitely learned a lot. And now I'm an even more excited shareholder, which by the way, I do own 50 shares of Celsius. This is not financial advice, just a guy on the internet who is investing into things that he knows and loves and try and have some fun along the way with my friend Katie here.
Katie Perry (37:17):
I'm Katie Perry.
Austin Hankwitz (37:18):
And I'm Austin Hankwitz.
Katie Perry (37:19):
And this was the After earnings podcast brought to you by Stakeholder Labs in Morning Brew.
Austin Hankwitz (37:24):
Be sure to like, subscribe and share this episode with a friend if you learn something new and we will catch you on our next episode.
