Premier Protein’s stronger-than-expected ecommerce performance helped drive growth at BellRing Brands in FY Q3, as net sales increased 6% to over $540 million, according to an earnings statement from the company released Tuesday morning.
Despite that momentum, the company narrowed its full-year net sales outlook to $2.28 to $2.32 billion. Top-line growth is projected at 14% to 16% and adjusted EBITDA growth of 9% to 11%.
BellRing’s flagship ready-to-drink line Premier Protein grew its consumption rate 19% in the quarter, with over half that growth coming from increased volume (+3%). The brand hit an all-time high of 21%, and sold a reported 36 shakes every second.
This year the company has looked to support Premier Protein’s momentum through a media campaign and updated packaging, with attention now set to shift towards promotional displays and demos as it begins “aggressively pursuing merchandising in our IO and through the store” with a newly established dedicated team working alongside a new broker partner. Those include pallet displays, end caps and single-serve bottles in coolers.
In response to a question about Premier Protein’s ambitions to move towards “mainstream” beverage sets within stores, BellRing Brands CEO and president Darcy Horn Davenport said “We want to be in high traffic areas, and the category needs to be distinctive from the rest of the store, meaning it needs to have strong signage.”
“You need to clearly see that it’s convenient nutrition,” she continued. “It has to have education to help consumers understand what products they should try, and… to disrupt consumers in their kind of normal shopping behavior. “
Single-serve bottles will be a “big focus next year,” added Davenport; expect to see both ambient displays and cooler placements, as well as an expansion in the foodservice channel. The next step, she noted, is “getting after that DSD opportunity,” a prerequisite for success in convenience stores.
While Premier continues to drive overall company growth, BellRing’s other protein brands, like Dymatize, are expected to grow in the mid-single digits.
As part of a temporary expansion meant to serve “tariff-impacted categories,” Premier Protein gained a short-term incremental pallet position at a “Key Club retailer” during Q3 that runs through the end of the year. But so did its competitors, noted Davenport. Heavier-than-expected ecommerce activity in Q3 helped “mask” the deload in club retail and other channels, CFO Paul Rode added, contributing in part to the narrowed guidance.
‘Disruptive’ Innovation Coming
Along with its new logo, Premier is evolving with its first-ever plant-based product: a line of almond milk-based protein shakes launched in June that Davenport called its “first step of many toward more wholesome offerings.” It’s the brand’s second new release of the calendar year, after the introduction of its Indulgence line (30 grams of protein per 11.2 oz. bottle) in January.
“Our innovation pipeline is rich and is packed with both close-in innovation that has made us successful, like flavor leadership, pack size and format expansion, as well as ‘big-eye’ innovation, which will be more disruptive and focuses on incremental consumers and occasions,” she said.
Tariff Impact Looms
BellRing’s executives are “monitoring the latest developments and potential implications” of President Trump’s tariff policies on its FY 2026 input costs, but it acknowledged incoming headwinds are likely to have a low single-digit impact on total cost of goods sold. The company sources its protein from New Zealand and the European Union (EU), both of which are now subject to 15% tariffs.
“We do expect some headwind from tariffs to, you know, to impact us in FY 26 – we won’t be able to fully mitigate them by just changing suppliers or changing ingredients. So there will be some headwinds that we will work on, but we also have a number of opportunities, we think, to pull costs out of our products, out of our supply chain,” said Rode.