The company called Celsius has a Celsius problem.
On Thursday morning, before the US market opened, Celsius Holdings said revenue rose 16.8% to $847.2 million in the three months to September. Its chief executive, John Fieldly, called it "record quarterly revenue." But revenue from the Celsius brand itself fell about 6% to $356.8 million. Alani Nu, the brand the company bought in April 2025, brought in $410.1 million, up about 24%.
Wall Street had expected less. StockStory, citing S&P, put the analysts' average at $795.5 million of revenue and $0.34 of adjusted earnings per share; Celsius reported $0.41. Zacks said revenue beat its own estimate by 5.15%. The shares were rising in trading before the market opened, StockStory and Benzinga reported.
This story is about what sits inside that beat: a namesake brand losing ground in stores, a thinner margin, a small change of wording about when that margin recovers, and a new set of brand bosses, named three months after the founder of Rockstar publicly called for the chief executive to be fired.
Alani Nu passed Celsius in US stores
Circana, a research firm, tracks what shoppers spend on energy drinks in the US stores it covers, and Celsius reports the numbers in its releases. In the 13 weeks to September 27, the Celsius brand held 9.1% of the money spent on ready-to-drink energy drinks, and Alani Nu held 9.8%. In the 13 weeks to June 28, it was the other way around: Celsius had 9.5% and Alani Nu 8.7%.
Alani Nu is also ahead on revenue for the year so far. It brought in $1,142.6 million in the first nine months, against $1,091.7 million for the Celsius brand.
The Celsius brand's own numbers point in two directions. Its revenue decline narrowed, from 11.7% in the second quarter to about 6% in the third. But its retail sales, what shoppers actually spent, went the other way: they were down 2% in the second quarter and 7.0% in the third. Celsius blames "SKU optimization initiatives," meaning it cut the number of flavors and pack sizes it sells, along with shipment timing and weak sales at warehouse clubs. In August, CNBC reported, Fieldly said the company "may have been overly aggressive in reducing the number of products." Food Dive reported that Celsius also acknowledged going too far in holding back new Celsius products.
Fieldly's line this time: "We continued to make progress to improve CELSIUS brand performance."
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL data
Why Alani Nu's two numbers are so far apart
Alani Nu has its own gap, in the opposite direction. Its retail sales rose 57.9%, but the revenue Celsius booked from the brand rose about 24%. The second quarter looked similar: 55.7% and 21.0%.
The company's explanation is in the release: "a higher mix of DSD versus direct sales, which resulted in higher trade investments and billbacks that reduced reported net revenue." DSD means direct store delivery: Pepsi's trucks now carry Alani Nu to stores. Billbacks are credits for promotions, and they come off revenue. So more Alani Nu reaches shoppers while Celsius keeps less of each sale as revenue. The release also cites products it stopped selling that aren't ready-to-drink cans.
Pepsi matters more than it did a year ago. It made up 60.2% of Celsius's revenue in the second quarter, up from 33.3% a year earlier, the latest 10-Q shows, and it holds what the 10-K calls "a total of two Board seats."
Two other lines helped. Rockstar, which Celsius bought on August 28, 2025, and so was in last year's quarter for only about a month, added $80.3 million, helped by what the release calls "the timing of orders" in Canada. Its US retail sales fell 13.2%. And the Celsius brand's international revenue rose 78% to $41.0 million, from a small base.
A thinner margin, and a change of wording
Gross margin, the share of revenue left after the cost of making the drinks and getting them to customers, fell to 46.8% from 51.3% a year earlier and from 48.1% in the second quarter. The release blames "continued inflation in commodity costs, primarily aluminum and fuel, as well as a higher mix of DSD sales." StockStory reported that "gross margin missed expectations," even as revenue beat them.
One phrase changed between releases. In August, Celsius wrote of "initiatives expected to drive margin expansion over the remainder of the year." On Thursday, the same passage refers to "initiatives expected to drive margin expansion over the long term." A phrase in a release isn't a forecast, and neither release gives a margin target. But the remainder of the year is now one quarter, and the date is gone.
Profit looks better than it is at first glance. Diluted earnings per share were $0.39, against a loss a year earlier, but that loss came with $246.7 million of costs for moving Alani Nu from its old distributors to Pepsi. Strip out such one-time items, and adjusted earnings per share were $0.41, against $0.42 a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA, a measure of operating profit before interest, tax, depreciation and one-time items, was $198.6 million, above the $168.6 million analysts expected, but as a share of revenue it was 23.4%, compared with 28.4% a year ago.
Celsius kept buying back its own shares, but more slowly: about $44.5 million in the quarter, after about $100.4 million in the second, for $168.8 million so far this year under a $300 million authorization.
Rockstar's founder and the new brand bosses
In August, after a second-quarter report that missed estimates, Russ Savage spoke to CNBC. "Savage founded Rockstar in 2001 and sold it to PepsiCo in 2020," CNBC noted, and he now held roughly 4.7% of Celsius, worth about $300 million at the time. His message: "The CEO, the COO, the brand manager and the marketing manager all need to be fired." He offered himself as chief executive, so he has an interest in that outcome. On shelf space given up by the Celsius brand, his view was blunt: "Once you lose shelf space, you're dead."
Celsius answered: "We welcome ideas that are potentially value-creating from all Celsius Holdings shareholders." Three days after CNBC's report, the company announced that "Eric Hanson, President and Chief Operating Officer, has departed from the Company." Fieldly said at the time that "these actions have been evaluated and discussed over the past several months."
On Thursday came a larger change. Celsius is splitting into three brand units, each with its own president reporting to Fieldly, Food Dive reported. Alex Zigliara comes from Fiji Water to run the Celsius brand; Food Dive says he has also been chief executive of MrBeast Feastables and Clif Bar. Rishi Daing, the chief marketing officer, moves to run Rockstar. The company is still searching for someone to run Alani Nu, Food Dive reported, so the brand now carrying the company has no president of its own yet. Food Dive noted that the change comes as an activist investor calls for new leaders. The earnings release doesn't mention Savage.
Alani Nu also comes with a legal question. Food Dive reports an investigation in Texas into whether Alani Nu's high-caffeine drinks are unlawfully marketed to minors. In its 10-Q, Celsius says it received a civil investigative demand from the Texas attorney general in June, about "certain representations and practices concerning the Company's products," and is cooperating.
What it adds up to
This is analysis, not advice. Celsius Holdings is growing, and the growth is real: revenue was $52.6 million in 2018 and $2.5 billion in 2025. But this year's growth comes from what the company bought. The Pepsi arrangement that spreads those brands also changed the economics: more sales through Pepsi, with more of each sale going back in promotions, at a time when aluminum and fuel cost more.
The test will appear in the next release. If the Celsius brand's retail sales stop falling and its share of the category stops slipping, the cuts to its product line were a costly pause. If they keep falling while Alani Nu's lead widens, the company's name will describe a smaller and smaller part of what it sells. Analysts surveyed by Zacks expect a smaller quarter next: $766.93 million of revenue and $0.30 of adjusted earnings per share.
These figures come from the earnings release, earlier filings and news reports. Celsius's 10-Q for the third quarter had not been filed when this was written, and this story doesn't draw on its call with analysts, which began at 8 a.m. Eastern. More figures are on its company page. Celsius has built a bigger company around its brand. Now it has hired someone from outside to fix the brand itself.