The Incredible Rise of the Celsius Energy Drink

Joe Weisenthal (0:10)

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Odd Lots Podcast. I'm Joe Weisenthal.

Tracy Alloway (0:15)

And I'm Tracy Alloway.

Joe Weisenthal (0:16)

Tracy, we're in the office drinking Celsius energy drinks. I'm just gonna start this one really directly.

Tracy Alloway (0:22)

Should I do the ambient sound?

Okay, yes, you can't get better than being in the office drinking Celsius. It's not that early, actually. It's nine in the morning. So we needed the caffeine boost.

Joe Weisenthal (0:38)

This is actually my second one of the day. I'm on my second can of the Celsius energy drink. And also I had a coffee today.

I love caffeine.

Tracy Alloway (0:49)

People are always asking, oh, does Joe just not sleep? How does he get up so early in the morning? The answer is no, he doesn't because he has like three Celsiuses and two coffees and who knows what else.

Joe Weisenthal (1:00)

Okay, so we could just talk a lot about my weird sleep patterns or my caffeine consumption patterns.

But speaking of Celsius Holdings, this energy drink that we're both drinking in the office right now, or speaking of Celsius, it's owned by a company called Celsius Holdings.

This was like a $3 stock in 2018 Today it's $167 stock. So just an absolutely extraordinary mega home run winner for the company behind this energy drink. And the thing is, I don't know why and I don't know why I'm drinking it. Like why am I drinking Celsius and not Monster or Red Bull? I don't know. It's something in the air.

Tracy Alloway (1:40)

Well, I was gonna ask, cause you introduced me to Celsius and you were like, oh, we gotta go get a Celsius. And at the time had never heard of it before. How did you hear of it? Why did this become a thing?

Joe Weisenthal (1:50)

I think like, you know, the cool, I go to the gym and it seemed like the cool people at the gym were drinking it, or they had it in the, they have it in the refrigerator at my gym. And I think like, I don't know, I probably saw someone on Instagram drinking it.

And then I started drinking and then I posted about it. And then someone was like, oh, you know, it's publicly traded, which I didn't even realize.

And then I've like been obsessed partly around, I don't know, like I've just sort of been fascinated. But like, where did it come from? Like, how does this happen that a new brand emerges and we're all drinking it? Like, where did it come? I just don't like, I wanna know where it came from because it's now it's everywhere, but I don't know why.

Tracy Alloway (2:25)

Well, also the weird thing about energy drinks is I feel like, you know, if you go into a 7-Eleven or Bodega or whatever, there are so many of them.

Joe Weisenthal (2:34)

So many.

Tracy Alloway (2:35)

And there seem to be new ones all the time and it's difficult to keep track. And yet some of them really do have staying power. So we did an episode previously about Monster.

That stock has been absolutely phenomenal over the years. Red Bull is the other classic one.

And I don't know, it just feels like it's such an interesting product in that there must be insane amounts of competition, but if you can get it right, it seems like it can be really, really profitable.

Joe Weisenthal (3:06)

Right, and in the end, I know that supposedly it says on the can of Celsius it's fat burning. I'm skeptical of any of those claims, but whatever, I'm not a scientist. But they're all seem like the same, right? Which is a lot of caffeine and then either some sugar or an artificial sweetener of various sorts, some different flavors. None of them are that great.

Tracy Alloway (3:25)

And you're not really drinking them for the taste.

Joe Weisenthal (3:27)

Not really.

But again, they are kind of the same. So why do people gravitate? Why do some people drink Celsius? Who drinks a Monster? Who drinks a Red Bull?

Tracy Alloway (3:35)

Who is drinking those Swedish fish flavored energy drinks? That's what I wanna know.

Joe Weisenthal (3:40)

So this gets to the other thing, which is that, as you mentioned, if you go into any Bodega or 7-Eleven, there's so many different brands of energy drinks these days. And some of them are like really weird. Like there's Skittles flavored ones, and I think an Oreo flavored one, and a Swedish fish flavored one, and ones aimed clearly at gamers. It's all very strange.