Celsius CEO says Celsius growing, energy drink category ‘slowing’

Asked while presenting at the Evercore ISI Consumer and Retail Conference about recent scanner data that shows the energy drink sector overall has slowed, Celsius Chief Executive Officer John Fieldly replied, according to a transcript of the event: I mean, the category has been slowing, Robert. You’re absolutely right. I mean, it’s we’re watching it very closely over the last several weeks. You know, there’s a lot of forecasts as well that, you know, still anticipating good growth in the category. So we’re kind of waiting for that to turn around here. You know, we’re heading into summer right now. It’s the busiest beverage season that, you know, when you look at July, August, you know, usually best months of the year. So those are things that we’re waiting on. I think the little we’ve have been disappointed with the category not seeing that category growth as we anticipated. But, you know, there seems to be a lot of factors from seeing a lot of the write ups on weather and timing of resets. And it could be also, you know, the spending patterns on, you know, consumers starting to feel the pinch on the gas pump and all the rising costs. So there’s a lot of variables there I think you look at total beverage overall and it’s, you know, be interesting to see the reports coming out, but you’re starting to see some spending, deep spending, deep cuts, you know, that you haven’t seen over. I think when you look at, you know, Celsius specifically, you know, we’re showing good growth as well on the, you know, the scanner data. So Celsius is growing. I think if you back out Celsius out of the energy drink category, it’s, you know, in a negative position on growth.”