Celsius endured a rocky start to 2025, reporting declines in sales and revenue during Q1 even as its acquisition of Alani Nu pushed its category dollar share higher.
The energy drink maker reported revenues fell 7% year-over-year to $393.3 million in Q1, with a 10% drop in North America. Speaking on the Q&A portion of the investor presentation this morning, Celsius Chairman and CEO John Fieldly said the numbers reflected the company cycling major distribution gains, promotional activity and innovation (Celsius Essentials), as well as increased competition with a growing category.
“We got off to a slow start,” said Fieldly. “This year, [we’re] changing some of those strategies and key learnings with a more balanced approach.”
Though dollar share for Celsius slipped 140 points year-over-year to 10.9%, the company’s combined portfolio with recently acquired Alani Nu (5.3 share) brings it to 16.2%, a 81-point gain. Sales were down 3%.
Things looked better overseas: International revenue grew 41% in Q1 on the back of newly launched markets including Australia and the U.K. Excluding new markets opened in 2024, revenue was up 9%.
On pricing: After raising prices in Q4 2024, Fieldly said today “there are opportunities to take additional pricing. We feel very confident in our brands, but we want to be cautious as well, keeping a close eye on the consumer.” The CEO also noted “it does allow us to have additional flexibility with promotional activities as we are entering into somewhat uncertainty with the consumer in some of the channels we’re operating in.”
On retail: Playa Vibe, Retro Vibe and Mango Lemonade are expected to drive additional shelf placements when they launch this Summer. Fieldly noted gains in the form of more checkout coolers with some “large national retailers” as well. Spring resets delivered 4.1 additional items per store on average for in MULO and c-stores.
On Alani: As the brand just passed $1 billion in retail sales, Fieldly is already looking ahead to key account meetings for 2026. “It’s a great brand that’s resonating with an extremely loyal female consumer base, and we’re extremely optimistic about the distribution we’ll be able to gain with the Alani portfolio.”
On margins: Sourcing efficiencies for raw and packaging materials helped push gross margin up to 52.3% in Q1, compared to 51.2% for the same period last year. Fluctuations in aluminum prices is “not something that we see being significantly impactful to us.” And yet: “Unfortunately, we don’t know where things will go with the tariffs and how that will come into play long-term, but in Q2 we still see strong gross profit numbers; we pegged 50% for the year. We’re not going to back off from that at the moment.”