Even with a cloudy forecast, it’s liftoff time for Celsius Energy Drinks in 3…2…1! Can Celsius become more than just an impulse purchase and become a key part of a health-minded consumer’s daily lifestyle? I will use the recent Celsius Holdings earnings report and conference call as the backdrop to talk about broader functional energy beverage categorical and strategic insights. Additionally, since we are still in the midst of COVID-19, I will be providing some additional thoughts on how that un...
Aug 09, 2020•13 min
Are greener pastures ahead for The Vitamin Shoppe now that their main competitor filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy? The Vitamin Shoppe 2020Q2 earnings report that was released 8/6/2020 under its owner Franchise Group Inc. While the financial information in the report continues to be relatively small, I was able to collect insightful information on the quarterly performance from the Franchise Group conference call, previous corporate press releases, and public interviews from CEO Sharon Leite. Addi...
Aug 07, 2020•13 min
Should the sports nutrition industry finally embrace its more mainstream active nutrition future? When I started in the industry more than a decade ago, the only acceptable term used to describe brands like MusclePharm, Cellucor, Optimum Nutrition, or even today’s hottest brand Redcon1 would be sports nutrition...but, that isn’t the case anymore! While the terms sports nutrition and active nutrition seem to be thrown around interchangeably by professionals, they are stuffed full of nuisances tha...
Aug 05, 2020•13 min
In the first half of 2020, a huge tectonic shift occurred within the energy drink space, one that will have lasting implications for years to come, and no I’m not talking about COVID-19! Up until last year, the top 3 energy drink brands in the U.S. had gone unchanged since 2004. That was until Bang Energy blasted past Rockstar Energy in the summer of 2019 to become the #3 energy drink brand in the U.S. and reached sales of around $1.2 billion in that calendar year. This created earthquakes in th...
Aug 03, 2020•23 min
It makes sense that an organization founded on first-person shooter video game content would embrace the saying “You can be the hunter, or you can be the hunted.” At a time when investment in the gaming category by sports nutrition brands is growing, what happens when the script is flipped and an esports team invests in a sports nutrition startup? That is exactly what happened when the most popular professional gaming and esports organization FaZe Clan invested an undisclosed amount in the start...
Jul 28, 2020•14 min
From buying a sewing machine and screen printer for just over $1000, to having your business be valued at over $1 billion and a potential exit in 8 years is just plain wild. The business that I’m talking about is Britain’s fastest-growing fashion brand Gymshark. In this podcast episode, I will share a bit about the inspiring founding story, current financials, and areas I believe Gymshark knocked it out of the park to grow into a athletic apparel behemoth. Finally, I will talk about the projecte...
Jul 27, 2020•16 min
Monster Beverage Corporation is finally considering a portfolio strategy that doesn’t solely focus on energy drinks, but is that the right move? In June 2019, Monster Energy CEO Rodney Sacks said the beverage company had an appetite to look at alternative brands and to develop more beverages in the nonalcoholic…as well as the alcoholic market. With the non-compete just ending, will we see Monster Hard Seltzer, Monster CBD, or a ton of other beverage innovations in the next 12 months? That is if ...
Jul 21, 2020•14 min
How is the American economy doing? According to the Federal Reserve July 15, 2020 Beige Book, the outlook remains highly uncertain... You might be asking yourself WTF is the Beige Book and why should I care about what it says about the economy? The Beige Book is a Federal Reserve System publication about current economic conditions across all 12 Federal Reserve Districts. It characterizes regional economic conditions and prospects based on a variety of mostly qualitative information, gathered di...
Jul 21, 2020•16 min
It looks like even Quest Nutrition couldn’t overcome this abominably complex retailing environment from 3/1 to 5/30. This podcast episode will breakdown the FY20Q3 earnings report for The Simply Good Foods Company (SMPL) filed on 7/8/2020. This is the second full quarter of sales data from the late 2019 acquisition of Quest Nutrition. This episode breaks down the financial performance of The Simply Good Foods Company brand portfolio, covering how Quest Nutrition and Atkins Nutritionals performed...
Jul 09, 2020•17 min
This episode of the podcast highlights a wellness (or wellbeing) CPG portfolio, that now has over $500 million in annual revenue (over $1.4 billion in consolidated revenue), yet very few supplement industry stakeholders in the United States speak about them. The company I'm speaking about is The Hut Group, which is a digital-first, global, consumer brand and technology group, powered by a unique and proprietary end-to-end e-commerce technology and operating ecosystem called Ingenuity. What you'l...
Jul 06, 2020•15 min
Every one of the 3 biggest American stock exchanges just had their best quarterly performance in more than two decades. So, why does the Wall Street establishment have their proverbial panties in a bunch over a rookie day trader that never bought or sold stocks until pandemic started? Let's just say he is proving out a model for the future and that should make a lot of people on Wall Street nervous... The rookie day trader of reference would be Dave Portnoy, better known as the founder of the me...
Jul 05, 2020•13 min
After 2-3 years of making content about the nutritional supplement specialty retailer GNC, that referenced a future that most-likely ended in bankruptcy, it finally happened... GNC filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and I’m happy for them! Within this podcast episode, I will cover; Brief recap of what led GNC to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 filing details (and restructuring support agreement), including what’s in the filing, who’s included, who’s excluded, who potentially will get burned W...
Jun 30, 2020•26 min
Is it time for American supplement brands to start allocating resources towards Alibaba? As egocentric Americans, we tend to get caught up with our own lives, own business, own market, and our own economy. We can tell you many facts and opinions on Amazon, but know little about the Chinese equivalent Alibaba. I've honestly kept this content idea on the back-burner for quite some time, but decided to finally create it after I saw an announcement in the latest Alibaba Group earnings report last mo...
Jun 24, 2020•10 min
Do you remember in Game of Thrones when Jon Snow died in the Season 5 finale, but was brought back to life in the next season by the Red Woman? Did that just happen with Ultimate Nutrition? For my sports nutrition industry followers, you might remember the saga that happened on August 17th, 2019 with Ultimate Nutrition abruptly closing their doors and leaving over 150 employees without a job. The 41 year-old legacy sports nutrition brand went silent, but it actually never fully went away and now...
Jun 23, 2020•18 min
Slow and steady wins the race, right? While the overconfident GNC is sleeping mid-race, The Vitamin Shoppe continues to push ahead one slow step at a time. The Vitamin Shoppe’s parent company Franchise Group finally released its 2020Q1 earnings on 6/18/20 and the CEO gave us some additional Q2 insights on the conference call that should prove valuable to functional CPG stakeholders. Check out my breakdown on this podcast episode.
Jun 21, 2020•15 min
What does a 102-year-old rental car company have to do with an 85-year-old nutritional supplement retailer? Nothing much yet, but that could quickly change because a decision Friday by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware gave Hertz permission to sell as up to 246.8 million unissued shares...marking an unprecedented move! A move that might be copied by GNC as it continues to extend the runway further for the possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Jun 16, 2020•14 min
How much are large consumer packaged goods portfolios willing to pay when developing direct-to-consumer (D2C) capabilities? How about $700 million? You might be gawking at that price tag, but what if I told you that was cheap compared to the reported $1 billion that Unilever paid for Dollar Shave Club... In March of 2018, The Clorox Company announced it was acquiring Nutranext for $700 million. In this podcast, I will explain why that decision was more about gaining knowledge for the digital cha...
Jun 12, 2020•17 min
Walmart has accelerated its growth to reach more customers by showing newfound agility that the retailer didn't have several years ago. Truth is, when America needed it the most, the most American of all retailers stood up to help the country through one of its most trying times. But...is any of this newfound agility actually new? The founder of Walmart Sam Walton once famously remarked that “If we work together, we'll lower the cost of living for everyone...we'll give the world an opportunity t...
Jun 11, 2020•16 min
Have you ever been to a fitness expo and thought how much fun it would be to work for a supplement company? Maybe you haven't been lucky enough to attend a Arnold Sports Festival or Mr. Olympia weekend, but you think "gym is life" and love talking fitness, health, and supplements with your buddies. Currently, with so many Americans looking for new work, I thought it would be valuable to hear personal stories from industry professionals that all "started from the bottom" and grew into industry le...
Jun 09, 2020•36 min
On this Pivotal interview, we have an extensive chat with Mark Glazier, CEO of NutraBio. He shares his perspective on the evolution of the sports nutrition industry. With over two decades of entrepreneurship in the space, Mark tells stories that help you understand why NutraBio has consistently grown every year for over 20 years. Additionally, we discuss areas, such as product transparency not being a customer acquisition tool, influencer created sports nutrition brands, Amazon, and a number of ...
Jun 02, 2020•1 hr 14 min
In this episode, we cover the breaking news that Bodybuilding.com was just sold by Expedia Group, after the travel company had the supplement internet retailer for less than a year. The new owner of Bodybuilding.com is The Najafi Companies, a Phoenix-based Private Equity Firm, with the owner having ties to Phoenix Suns ownership. I will share an update on where Bodybuilding.com is today, what The Najafi Companies focuses on with their investments and their assumed plan of action. Additionally, I...
May 27, 2020•17 min
Can you pick a game that is more fun than guessing Amazon’s next acquisitions? I’ll wait… With recent news of Amazon looking to buy several what I like to call “splashy” companies during and after this Great Lockdown recessionary period, it got me thinking about what exactly the internet retailer could potentially be up too. This podcast will focus on 5 (non-technology) categories of likely interest to Amazon and the name(s) I believe would be the best fit for them. Fashion Heavy General Merchan...
May 25, 2020•24 min
Is it just me or does the momentum around Celsius Energy Drinks remind you of what happened 3-4 years ago with Bang Energy? How does the saying go? Longtime listener, first time caller? If you follow me on LinkedIn, you know I have been sharing quarterly updates on Celsius Holdings for the last several years. That being said, this is my first standalone video with Celsius being the focal point. I think it will be interesting for my community to take a deeper dive into how this emerging energy be...
May 25, 2020•18 min
On this podcast episode, I use the BellRing Brands 2020 FYQ2 earnings report as the backdrop to explain is Premier Protein is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the uncertain COVID-19 retailing environment. BellRing Brands is a portfolio that owns a collection of convenient nutrition businesses, such as Premier Protein, Powerbar, Joint Juice, Supreme Protein, and Dymatize Nutrition and was previously wholly-owned by Post Holdings. I will further update you on the growth of Premier Protein...
May 12, 2020•18 min
On this episode, we will use the recent 2020Q1 GNC earnings report, that was released on 5/11/2020, as the backdrop to discuss its upcoming bankruptcy "This is Sparta Kick" moment. I will breakdown the key quarterly financial data, but more importantly cover what is happening with GNC and the COVID-19 retailing environment. I also cover some details around human capital cost reduction, store optimization plans, COVID-19 store closures, and cost cutting or delaying measures with rent and vendors....
May 11, 2020•19 min
This podcast episode will introduce six consumer trends that were caused or accelerated by the coronavirus pandemic, as it continues to reshape every part of our lives. There has likely never been a more volatile period for consumer behavior shifts in our lifetime and that creates massive winners and losers. As an entrepreneur (or aspiring one), you should LOVE this time period. In this video, I am going to highlight a collection of accelerated trends that are happening right now, explain the un...
May 06, 2020•19 min
Is the "COVID-19 Effect" slowing down the fastest growing CPG category in the U.S.? In this episode, I consider several assumptions on if packaged CBD products are following the COVID-19 market activity of general CPG products, vices like alcohol CPG, or nutritional supplements. Additionally, I give updates on the shifting sales channel activity, supply-chain, and pricing reactions within the CBD market in 2020.
May 05, 2020•12 min
Pivotal is an interview-style segment that tackles topics in consumer packaged goods (CPG) and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) from the business leaders that live it EVERY DAY! This episode, we have a candid discussion with Stephanie Leffler, CEO of OneSpace, which provides a suite of tools to help CPG brands win top position on the digital shelf. OneSpace believes that “eye level is buy level” is just as important online as it is offline by providing on-demand services for centralizing, optim...
Apr 30, 2020•37 min
This episode of the "Consumed" series covers the breakdown of the 2019Q4 earnings release and current report of the Franchise Group, which acquired The Vitamin Shoppe officially on 12/16/2019. I use the recent financial reports as the backdrop to explain my perspective on if The Vitamin Shoppe is in a better position to take on the coronavirus pandemic than their main competitor GNC.
Apr 29, 2020•15 min
This episode of the "Consumed" series covers the breakdown of the 2020Q1 Glanbia preliminary financial report. Glanbia is a global nutrition company that owns various nutritional supplement and sports nutrition brands. These brands include names like... Optimum Nutrition BSN ThinkThin (now called Think!) Isopure Amazing Grass Slim Fast. I use the recent earnings report as the backdrop to explain my perspective on if Glanbia Performance Nutrition can use its strong balance sheet to grow their mar...
Apr 28, 2020•15 min
