Celsius Holdings has reshuffled its leadership team as part of what the energy-drinks group has called an “organisational realignment”.
In a statement yesterday (10 August), the Florida-based company said that Eric Hanson, the president and chief operating officer at Celsius had left the business.
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
It did not disclose why Hanson had departed, nor if the group was intending to find a replacement for the position.
Celsius said in its statement the changes are part of an “organisational realignment” in order “to support its total energy portfolio strategy”.
Other changes in the leadership team include the promotion its executive vice-president of North American sales, Tyler Bohannon, to the position of chief commercial officer.
Bohannon will oversee field sales, key retailer accounts, direct-store-delivery operations and revenue growth management across Celsius’s brand portfolio, the group said.
Before joining Celsius, he held senior roles at Nestlé Waters, Coors Brewing, Rockstar Energy and PepsiCo.
As of last month, Tony Guilfoyle, formerly chief customer officer, was also moved into the newly created role of chief business transformation officer.
Celsius said he will lead company-wide initiatives which include “strengthening cross-functional execution, advancing operational excellence” and “supporting AI adoption”.
Prior to joining Celsius in 2020, Guilfoyle was executive vice-president of sales at Rockstar Energy for more than a decade.
Celsius chairman and CEO John Fieldly said: “Together with our Board, we continue to take action to ensure our leadership structure evolves alongside the priorities and opportunities of the business.
“Strengthening our commercial organisation and enterprise capabilities is an important part of our long-term strategy to grow our scaled portfolio of leading brands, and these actions have been evaluated and discussed over the past several months,” he added.
The group’s shares tumbled last week, after its second quarter results missed Wall Street expectations.
Celsius’s revenue in the quarter was up 11% at $817.9m, contributing to a 50% rise in the first half to $1.6bn.
William Blair analyst Jon Andersen however, said the group’s second-quarter sales were 8% below the financial services firm’s forecast and 6% below the consensus estimate among Wall Street analysts.
In the three-month period, Celsius saw revenue of its namesake brand drop by nearly 12%, because of higher “trade and promotional investment” and the timing of shipments linked to “inventory rebalancing”, it said.
The decline was also attributed to “softness in the club channel, a planned moderation in innovation activity during the period and SKU optimisation initiatives implemented in conjunction with the integration of our recent acquisitions and Alani Nu’s distribution transition”.
Russ Savage, the founder of now PepsiCo-owned Rockstar Energy, has called for management changes at the company, according to a report from CNBC last week.
Savage told the publication on Friday (7 August) he believed the CEO, COO, brand manager and marketing manager should be fired and has offered to take on the CEO role himself.
“I’m publicly volunteering to do it,” he told CNBC. “The CEO has lost credibility with the investment community.”
According to the report, Savage has built a stake of more than 12 million Celsius shares, or around a 4.7% stake.
In response to the report, a Celsius spokesperson said: “We welcome ideas that are potentially value-creating from all Celsius Holdings shareholders.”
Celsius could not confirm or deny Savage’s stated shareholding figure.
The group said added that “reported record second quarter financial results, reflecting continued demand and resilience across our consumer base. We remain focused on executing our total energy portfolio strategy to drive durable, long-term growth.
It said its board members and management “have engaged with Russ Savage many times over the past several years”.
