Good morning and welcome to the Celsius Holdings Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. A brief question-and-answer session will follow the formal presentation. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is now my pleasure to introduce your host, Cameron Donahue of Hayden IR. Thank you, Mr. Donahue. You may begin.

Thank you, and good morning, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for Celsius Holdings second quarter 2020 earnings conference call. Joining me on the call today are John Fieldly, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Edwin Negron, Chief Financial Officer. Following their prepared remarks, we will open the call to your questions and instructions will be given at that time. The Company filed its Form 10-Q with the SEC and issued a press release today. All materials are available on the company's website at celsiusholdingsinc.com under the Investor Relations section. As a reminder, before I turn the call over to John, the audio replay will be available later today. Please also be aware that this call may contain forward-looking statements which are based on forecasts, expectations and other information available to management as of today, August 6, 2020. These statements involve numerous risk and uncertainties, including many that are beyond the company's control. Except to the extent as required by applicable law, Celsius Holdings undertakes no obligation and disclaims any duty to update any of these forward-looking statements. We encourage you to review in full our Safe Harbor statements contained in today's press releases and our quarterly filings with the SEC for additional information. With that, I'd like to turn the call over to President and Chief Executive Officer, John Fieldly for his prepared remarks. John?

Thank you, Cameron. Good morning, everyone and thank you for joining us today. The second quarter was the first full quarter impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, undoubtedly posed challenges to all of our stakeholders. While the path forward remains uncertain, we remain encouraged by our momentum and the dedication and perseverance of our employees, partners and customers. These extraordinary times present challenges to all of us and our condolences go out to all those who have been affected by this pandemic. The health and safety of our employees, customers, consumers and partners remain our top priority, and we continue to monitor the environment and implement contingency plans to mitigate risk through our business. Despite these disruptions, our second quarter performance again demonstrates the momentum we are building in the marketplace and the efforts from our team to reach more consumers through wider distribution, improve margins through cost and operational improvements and increase our brand recognition globally. We set another record quarter with over $30 million in revenue, an increase of 86% over the second quarter of last year and delivered another quarter of profitable growth of approximately $1.6 million in GAAP net income. Consumer demand for our functional beverages remained strong. And the most recent reported United States SPINS data for the 52-weeks ending July 12th, 2020, confirms that we have significantly outpaced the category across multiple channels, which includes a 46.5% growth in the convenience channel, outpacing the category growth rate by 11.6 times. And in MULO, our growth is at over 99%. In addition, in accordance to Stackline, which tracks energy drinks sales by Amazon in the United States for the 13-weeks ended April 11th, 2020, sales in dollars in the energy drink category by Amazon including energy shots grew 80.8% versus the same period a year ago.…

Thank you, John. For the three months ended June 30th, 2020, revenue was a record high $30 million, an increase of $13.9 million or 86% compared to $16.1 million for the same period last year. The overall increase in revenues was due to increases in sales volumes as opposed to increases in product pricing. By geography, the 86% revenue increase was attributable to continued strong growth of 44% in North America related to double-digit growth from both existing accounts and new distribution, including expansion at world-class retailers. Consequently, North American revenue delivered a record $20.8 million for the quarter, a $6.4 million increase when compared to the prior year quarter. Revenue from the European markets was $8.8 million or an increase of $7.5 million compared to the second quarter of 2019, reflecting the full impact of consolidating the results of our European operations. Asian revenue totaled $326,000 compared to $381,000 in the year ago period. The modest decline in Asia was primarily a result of currency fluctuations and the impact of the current health crisis. Revenue from all other areas amounted to $107,000, which doubled compared to the quarter a year ago. Gross profit increased by $6.1 million or 88% to $13 million in the second quarter of 2020, up from $6.9 million in the year ago quarter. Gross profit margin for the first three months ended June 30th, 2020 was 43.3%, which compares favorably to 42.6% for the 2019 quarter. The increase in gross profit margin and dollars reflects the impact of the consolidation of the European operations and the result of the increase in sales volumes as opposed to increases in product pricing. The increase in gross profit margin translated to an incremental profitability of $210,000 in this quarter. Selling and marketing expenses for the three months ended…

Thank you, sir. We'll now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And currently our first question will come from the line of Jeff Van Sinderen with B. Riley. Please go ahead, sir.

Good morning, everyone. Let me just first say congratulations on the strong results. John, maybe you can give us a little more color on how the process of adding DSD partners is going, since you're now over 130 partners at this point. Maybe speak more about the retailers that are expected to flip over to DSD in second half, impact on your business from that. And then kind of given the strong sales growth, how do you feel about inventory levels, production plans and position to deliver to meet that demand, considering the boost you typically experience from flipping over to major DSDs?

Excellent. Thank you, Jeff and appreciate it. The team has done a great job this quarter, continues to execute extremely well. You are correct, we are about 135 DSD partners today. The transition of Bang from majority of Anheuser-Busch independent distributors to Pepsi has really opened up a lot of opportunity for us. So the team has been busy filling in the gaps in several key markets in the United States, in the metropolitan areas to really cover the DMAs. So we're able to flip over those key accounts. So as it stands right now, with 135, we have about 70% of all the major metropolitan markets in the North America covered. We do have a few gaps that we're working to really close in the back half, really in Q3, but we really have come a long way since the beginning of the year. So really excited about that transition. In the past we talked about Target and flipping over to Big Geyser in New York and that has gone really well, as well as 7-Eleven in that market. Well we're currently working on CDS as well. We have been given the green light in the third quarter, starting in the back half of this month and into September that we will be flipping over and changing the route-to-market with Target. So Target will be one of the first really key accounts that will be taking on more DSD distribution throughout the country. So a variety of key markets in the country will be serviced by DSD with Target. Also CDS, we're working with CDS extremely closely doing the same thing. We anticipate a majority of CDSs will be converted over to DSD towards the back half of this year. And Walmart is taking a little bit longer, so…

Okay, great. And then just a follow-up to that. I know that you mentioned Peach Vibe being a success. Maybe you can just touch on some of the resets that are happening in second half with some of the retailers, where you might be adding SKUs, flavors, getting more shelf space. And then if you could just touch on or update us on marketing plans, how those evolve for the second half?

Yeah, excellent. Hopefully everyone on the call has tried Peach Vibe. If you haven't, I encourage you to. It's been a great success. The team has done a great job really at a time of uncertainty and all the craziness. Our Peach Vibe launch was a great thing to bring to people, bringing positive vibes during the summer, much needed positive vibes and the team did a great job through a variety of marketing activities to get that out there. We were the number one newly launched, our new release on Amazon for about two weeks, which was a great success. We saw great rotation. We actually had to go back to production very quickly on that product. We overshot some of our forecast initially and a lot of our new distributors that are coming onboard, it was a perfect timing, all these new distributors coming onboard, bringing of something really exciting new that's added as possible vibe and it's cool. The team did a great job on the marketing with a variety of influencers and social engagement and activation. And unfortunately, it was delayed with a lot of these resets. It was anticipated to be in more key accounts than it currently was in the summer time. We did feel you know it was timing to move forward with it due to our distributors, the number of distributors coming onboard and the plans for the summer launch. We did augment a lot of our marketing plans, the off line activation was augmented to online. But it was a great success. So hopefully everyone gets to try it there. It will be listed, it is listed right now at CDS, so we did do a summer display program with CDS in about 2,800 stores. So right now Peach Vibe is in a lot of locations at CDS, they took it in. In the back half of this year, you'll likely see it in a variety of Target locations and many other retailers as we head into the back half of these resets and into 2021. We think it's going to be a leading contributor to revenues and another one of our great flavors that our innovation team has put together. So staying on the forefront of flavor innovation with an experiential offering has driven great success on behalf of the team. So they did a great job.

Okay, terrific. Continued success and thanks for taking my questions.

Thank you, Jeff.

Thank you.

Thank you, sir. Continuing on next. Our next question comes from the line of David Bain with ROTH Capital. Please go ahead, sir.

Great, thank you. I was hoping first, maybe if you could speak to the promotional environment, I think, Canada's Red Bull up 10% in the second quarter, they did the similar watermelon flavor and you know a lot of promotions during COVID. It sounds like Monster may now resume some activities as well and expand with the watermelon product also. I mean, as competitors begin to ramp promotions and special items, is there a need to react differently or is this kind of ramp out of COVID pretty much as expected and no real need to adjust?

Well thank you, Dave. Appreciate the question. You know in regards to category, the category has always been very competitive with a lot of variety of different pricing architectures and promotional strategies. You know we've indicated on our Q1 earnings call, we were going to run really heading post-COVID a lot of retailers wanted to see some integrated promotional programs really to entice consumers back into retail. We have participated in those. We were selected, as an example, in the month of July, we ran a BOGO program at 7-Eleven, which was great success, further increasing our penetration in the 7-Eleven chain, adding more additional SKUs on shelf and we see a really great partnership further. Over the last three years has been great, but we'd see further expanding with 7-Eleven, so that was great. Also Target, we have an NCAP program running. That was our first time really getting off that warm shelf in the energy aisle and with great placements and we run promotions there. Also at CDS, we've run some promotions on coming out of COVID through this summer. So you know I think the category has always been very promotional-driven, especially during the summer months with beverage. What we have done is, it's a very important, we continue this premiumization in the category. Celsius is the premium offering in the new performance energy category. So you know we won't be discounting down extensively. We're going to maintain our margins, but it's very important we continue to drive premiumization in the new category as it grows and scales, that's the opportunity we have. But you will see promotions, targeted promotions to gain trial and gain awareness.

Okay, great. And then just my second one if I could, on the DSD, I know you gave a lot of good detail. I just want to make sure I understand. Maybe the easiest way for me at least would be on the last call you gave us a penetration across your distribution. I think, it was like 12% based on the color you provided. Is there kind of a current maybe 3Q and 4Q contemplation of you know where that is and goes to? And as you deepen the - you know certain DSD relationships, will the number of DSDs narrow to just a larger one and I mean, how do you strategically think about DSD partnership, you know that evolution, generally?

Yeah. You know the partners we have now are in some of the top tier distributors in the regions that we're operating in. So you know we're looking to build a really long-term relationship and partnership with our key DSD partners. So you know we're at 135, we'll probably - we're going to be adding several more in the back half of this year to round out some of these markets. But we won't see really a contraction. It's really activating and partnering and working together to build Celsius and gaining more penetration you absolutely do gain more penetration with our DSD partners, because that allows us to further expand into regional chains, small format locations and also get that better execution in the trade and the higher velocity numbers. So those are some key points that we're really looking to accomplish on building out a national DSD network and what we're seeing is extremely positive where we stand today.

Perfect. Could you - is there a way to sort of capsulate the percentage penetration at this point?

Yeah. I mean, the last earnings call we said roughly about 10%, 12% of our stores currently being serviced by DSD. You know over the last quarter a lot of our partners did expand us into additional regional small format and we did make progress on flipping over, you know transitioning some more accounts over in key markets. But you know we're probably still in the teens at this point. We really need a lot of the bigger retailers to help us as we go through the transitional phase with CDS, Target, Walmart, Rite Aid, 7-Eleven and several of our new customers that we have plans to come onboard in the back half of this year. So that will continue to grow. We anticipate that number to continue to grow every quarter.

Awesome, congrats. Thank you.

Thank you, David.

Thanks.

Thank you for your question. Next, we have Jeffrey Cohen with Ladenburg Thalmann. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, John and Edwin. How are you?

Hello. Excellent, excellent, Jeff. How are you doing?

Doing well, doing well. Thank you.

Great quarter on the top line, so congrats and few questions for me. So can you talk about the channels a little bit? I was listening to Rodney the other day talk about your Nielsen like 11.3 on the Amazon Direct and thinking about that as well as you know what's been going on with what they call gas and convenience, as well as you know gyms. I assume that gyms are probably less than a quarter of your revenue and have taken a lead, but could you talk about the gas and convenience a little bit, as well as the online and kind of the trajectory that you had through the second quarter?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Jeff. You know the channel mix has been quite interesting over the last quarter, as we entered the second quarter and then throughout the second quarter. As we all know, you know gyms and vitamin specialty stores and locations have been closed, reopened and closed back down. And when the gym channel, a lot of these gym chains have opened, but they're running at like 25% capacity, 50% capacity. So we have experienced a significant decrease in our fitness channel. We are very committed to fitness and working closely with our partners, also some of the news on 24 hour and Gold's Gym as well. So you know that channel has impacted us. But there has been offset by the growth that we've seen in Amazon, you know mass, grocery, where we're just seeing you know great rotation. And it really goes back to what I said earlier about you know the opportunity we have here in the Celsius consumer. We're not just an impulse purchase, we're part of a daily active lifestyle. So you know you're drinking - consumers that were drinking a product which we hear a lot of times that we're just a pre-work out. We're more than just a pre-workout. And it's obviously that was you know shown in how the revenue has migrated over. So when you look at gas and convenience, we have a limited exposure there. We have currently about 11%, 12% ACV. We're still growing at about a 50% growth rate, latest SPINS data coming out on that market with a right around a 12%, 12.5% ACV. So a long runway ahead and just seeing great rotation in the accounts we're in. We closed additional Circle Ks in the quarter, several divisions there which we're excited about seeing great rotation at QT, racetrack, and of course 7-Eleven has been great for us through the quarter. So you know we feel it's going to come back, obviously we all know the traffic has been down through the quarter you started to see more traffic come back. It's not where it was pre-COVID, but we feel that the category is going to come back, it's going to come back in convenience and petrol, and we want to make sure we're going to be a major player in that category as it continues to recover.

That's great. And then secondly from me, could you just talk a little bit about your demographic and demographics as compared to your supposed competitors out there as far as picking up probably what I'd be more of the Gen X and Gen Y generation as opposed to Gen Z or boomers you know post-Millennium, can you talk about that a little bit for us?

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. You know that's what's really unique about Celsius and the great opportunity we have, and which Edwin and I and our team members here are really excited about the opportunity. We have a much broader consumer base than, say, a traditional energy drink consumer, the energy drink category. When you look at you know traditional energy, historically has been 18 to 24 male has been really the target. The category continues to evolve. The category is aging up. The consumers that were drinking those traditional energy drink products are looking for better for you, you know options. And as we all know, health and wellness is even more important today than it ever was been before. And Celsius born in fitness, vitamin specialty where all about encouraging people to live an active healthy lifestyle and live fit with Celsius. So it's really resonating well in today's health-minded consumers. So you know when you look at our demographics, we've always been about 50-50, male-female, which is unique in the category and also our age demographic as indexed up, you've aged up you know in a 45, 50 range actually in a lot of categories. And I think it has to do with the ingredients. We have green tea, guarana, ginger, biotin, chromium a variety of 7 essential vitamins, and it tastes great, light, and it makes you feel really good as well and no crash so. And we're also seeing the new consumers entering the energy drink category aren't grabbing for mom or dad's Red Bull or Monster, you know they're grabbing and they're looking for products that align with their active lifestyle. And you know one of your top picks has to be the premium offering and premium Celsius in the category and we're seeing great rotation on that. We're seeing a lot more Gen X and Z and Millennials over-index in the category as well drinking more of these products than the traditional energy drink consumer, say, 5, 6 years ago. So we're excited.

And then lastly from me, could you talk a little bit about July versus June, and kind of you know reopening of some of the economic sectors out there, coupled with your traditional some restraint, does it feel good where you're situated now into traditionally your strongest quarter versus how you came out of June in Q2?

Yeah, I think we came out considering you know like you mentioned 25% of our revenues approximately you know 20%, actually, 28% of our revenues, almost 30% historically have come from vitamin specialty, gyms and health club. So you know having that channel down as well as the momentum we are building in the on-premise vending and micro-market channel which has been impacted, you know we're seeing good momentum. Saw good momentum in June and we're seeing good momentum as we head into July. I did state that purchase orders in-house in North America were over 50% versus the prior year. So just looking at the quarter there, we entered and exited July with some pretty good momentum. And that doesn't even really include a lot of the new accounts that are planned to come onboard in the back half of this year. It really set us up for a really strong 2021. So I think you know we feel pretty good as an organization. We're working hard and we want to take share in this category.

Fantastic. Thanks for taking the questions.

Thank you, Jeffrey.

Thank you, sir. [Operator Instructions] Next, we have Anthony Vendetti with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Hey, John. I just wanted to talk about a little more on the Amazon channel. So you said you're third after Monster, Red Bull. Can you talk about the growth in the channel just related to Celsius versus last year at this time? What's the growth year-over-year?

You know we've been growing very strong. Thank you, Anthony, number one for appreciate your question. In regards to Amazon, you know we've been seeing strong growth over the last you know several years on Amazon. You know we were in the you know high double-digit growth rates on the Amazon platform. Most recently, I saw latest data from Rodney Sacks at Monster Energy on his earnings call. He had some - the latest Stackline data which he disclosed and the category is growing about an 88% growth rate. So you know that was over the last four weeks as of, I think, it was July 14th it's cut off. So you know strong growth in the category on Amazon, we are exceeding that growth rate. I think he reported us over 200% growth rate, I believe I have to double-check that. But it was extremely high, a 180% growth rate versus the 88% so and we took - we increased our share by 1 point, Red Bull did lose their 1 point share, so getting closer to number 2 position, potentially the second largest energy drink on Amazon. But we've been doing very well, very well. You know that's what consumers are shopping now at-home deliveries, their sales are up tremendously. So it's great that we're growing faster than the growth rate, which is key.

That's great, John. And just in terms of the new accounts that are coming on in the second half that sets you up for '21. How has COVID-19 changed? It doesn't look like it's obviously impacting you, but how has it changed your day-to-day practices for your team? And has it - what is - I know there were some additional expenses, but what type of sanitation expenses? Can you talk a little bit about that and how the sales practices changed a little bit?

Yeah. No, absolutely, I think everyone's world as an organization and everyone's world that kind of turned upside down. The teams are working hard to continue to stay focused and execute and drive maximize opportunities and stay nimble. You know it is a challenge for all of us. You know we live in - we're operating from South Florida, that's where our headquarters is based. So you know we do have contingency plans in place for most recently we had a little bit of a scare with a hurricane coming at us, so it is something that we're always prepared to work remotely. So we have our servers and categorizing facilities, we do drills. So you know and we have not really missed a beat. I feel I think the team has done a great job. It isn't difficult working with a lot of individuals remotely. So many of our team members are working remotely. We're taking extra precautions, cleaning, sanitizing to your point, also our teams on the sales side has not been able to really have those customer meetings. So right now we're in the midst of 2021 or entering 2021 buyer seasons. You know this is the time to sell in additional expansion for 2021 and a lot of those meetings are happening now through different platforms, video conferencing. So you're missing those touch points also many of our distributors. You know we're not really able to activate them as we originally planned with support and team blitzes and we're doing the best we can and trying to be as precautious as we can as well, and then our marketing initiatives, obviously had to pivot from offline experiential marketing to online. So trying to get creative, think out of the box and again, in front of consumers and continue to grow the brand and grow our consumer base and stay flexible, which is key.

Okay, excellent. Excellent. Just maybe if Edwin has the number you know off the top of your head, in the quarter that you are in and do you expect that increased expenses due to COVID-19 like you said, cleaning, sanitation, sanitizing whatever, do you expect that to continue in this quarter? And is it a material expense or right now it's something that you're doing, but it's not impacting the expense line that much?

I'll let Edwin take that.

Yeah, thank you. Yeah, absolutely, yeah, we are doing obviously you know those type of efforts. But to your point, it's not - hasn't been material at this point. But we are obviously taking all the precautions and taking all the measures in terms of sanitation and safeguarding as John mentioned, employees, you know consumers and so forth so, but not something that at this point is material.

Yeah I'd just like to add, I think it's more, Anthony, not really a material cost to us, but the cost is really an opportunity cost is really what's costing us as an organization, because of you know the limited ability to execute and really activate our new distribution partners and the delays that we're seeing in a lot of these retailer resets. So it's more of an opportunity cost, which is a material component.

Understood, excellent. All right guys. Thanks. Appreciate it.

Excellent. Thank you, Anthony.

Thank you.

And our next question comes from the line of Aaron Gray with Alliance Global Partners. Please go ahead.

Hi. Good morning and thanks for the questions and congrats on the additional distribution agreements in quarter.

Excellent and thank you, Aaron.

Thank you.

So first question for me is just around you know the new distribution agreements and kind of having them more as your brand ambassador, if you will, especially with the retailer. So just kind of curious as to how it's going to help with your shelf placement, and then also how we can think about potentially being placed more at the fridges, at checkout as well to create more additional opportunities and kind of where you see opportunities for that going forward?

Absolutely. That's the power of the DSD network. You nailed it on the head. You know we say kind of internally, faces sell cases; and when it's cold, it's sold. So you know that's - we have a great product that fits both those. That's where the DSD comes in. It's the power of the people, the power of the teams activating them and getting more people out there selling Celsius. So we have you know a limited team. And through these distributors, we're able to educate, excite motivate and help us continue to build share and also help merchandise, which has been key. As you all know there's a lot of going direct to retailers in this high turning category causes a lot of challenges and complexities due to shelf presence taking out you know some of the activity by other partners in the category and what happens on the street at retail. So the manpower is really the key and that's where we see a great opportunity and benefit.

All right, great. Thanks for that. And then just one more from me. Obviously, the category remains very competitive with players you know looking to innovate you've come out with your own innovation as well and there's particularly a lot of competition on the healthy beverages side that we've seen. So just curious to how you think about the competitive landscape, how it's evolving? Obviously Celsius has been doing very well. So do you feel like it's more of a rising tide lifts all boats, as you see these other competitors come out with product and the entire energy drink category kind of gains traction just curious to your thoughts on that? Thank you.

Yeah. I think - I mean, there's always been competition. Beverages fierce the barriers to entry are fairly low. The barriers to succeed are extremely high. You know and it's the - the competitive landscape continues to evolve and that's important that the teams at Celsius down the forefront, we continue to build the brand, the brand equity, maintain our distribution and you know this is something that we operate in an extremely competitive environment, that's beverages, especially energy you're seeing that now in sparkling waters, you're also seeing it in spite Celsius now. But once you know you've built a brand, a strong brand, you continue to track more consumers, you can really take share in the category and that's what we're focused on.

All right, great. Thank you and best of luck.

Thanks, Aaron.

Thank you. I'll now turn the presentation back to our main presenter for his concluding remarks. Please go ahead, Mr. Fieldly.

Thank you. Also like to thank Regan Ebert for her service as a Board of Director to the company. She has a great opportunity and I wish her well on her new endeavors at Danone as a Senior Vice President role. In addition, I would like to welcome Caroline Levy, who is recently appointed to our Board of Directors. She brings over 30 years of consumer industry experience, an extensive network of industry and investor relationships and we give her a warm welcome, and welcome to the team. In addition, I would like to mention on August 14th, we'll be participating in a virtual fireside chat hosted by Alliance Global Partners. If you would like to attend, please contact your Alliance Global Partners' representative for additional details. And then on behalf of the company, we'd like to thank everyone for their continued interest and support. Our results demonstrate our products are gaining considerable momentum and we are capitalizing on today's global health and wellness trends, and the changes taking place in the transformation of the energy category. Our active healthy lifestyle position us a global position with mass appeal and we're building upon our core and leveraging opportunities and deploying best practices. We have a winning portfolio, strategy and team, and a large rapidly growing consumer base. Our mission is to get Celsius to more consumers profitably and I'm very proud of our dedicated team as without them, our tremendous achievements and significant opportunities we see ahead would not be possible. In addition, I'd like to thank all of our investors for their continued support and confidence in our team. Thank you, everyone for your interest in Celsius. Be safe and have a great day.

Thank you, sir. And that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you all for your participation and ask that you please disconnect your lines. Thank you once again. Have a great day.