Monster Beverage Corp., maker of the Monster Energy drink, reported net sales for the second-quarter 2024 increased 2.5% to $1.90 billion, from $1.85 billion in the same period last year.
But despite this increase in net sales for the Corona, California-based beverage-maker, Hilton Schlosberg, vice chairman and co-CEO, said that the energy drink category has experienced lower growth rates in second-quarter 2024.
“The energy drink category in the United States and in certain other countries experienced lower growth rates in the second quarter,” Schlosberg said. “Retailers have reported a reduction in convenience store foot traffic, and we have seen a shift at retail towards more mass and dollar channels.”
During the energy drink company’s second-quarter earnings call on Aug. 7, Schlosberg said “we've seen reports of foot traffic convenience channel being down by as much as 3% to 3.5%” adding that “our consumers are more hard pressed than consumers in other categories.”
Other beverage and consumer packaged product companies have also seen a “tighter” consumer spending environment and “weaker” demand in the quarter, Schlosberg said.
Boca Raton, Florida-based Celsius Holdings, which reported earnings for the second-quarter 2024 on Aug. 6, said within the convenience channel that the company’s average SKUs selling per store increased 43% across the same period.
“While we achieved strong space gains, we also began to feel the effects of the same macroeconomic factors that are pressuring same-store sales and affecting consumer purchasing habits,” said John Fieldly, CEO of Celsius.
Fieldly said during the company’s earnings call that “just last week, one of the largest convenience chains noted their same-store sales were down more than 4%.”
With competition within the energy category at a record high Fieldly said “we continue to add resources across sales, merchandising, key accounts and field marketing.”
The full sugar energy category subset has “stagnated” for several years and the growth rate has “moved” to the sugar-free sector, which is now “approximately half of the category,” Fieldly said.
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