Celsius Holdings posts record quarterly revenue as Alani Nu offsets a shrinking core brand

Celsius Holdings reported third-quarter 2026 results on Thursday, Nov. 5, posting record quarterly revenue even as sales of its namesake energy drink declined for the period, a divergence that underscores how dependent the company has become on the Alani Nu and Rockstar Energy brands it added over the past two years. The results were disclosed in a press release filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission as an exhibit to an 8-K posted on SEC EDGAR, in a filing whose EDGAR filing index confirms was filed and accepted on the morning of Nov. 5, 2026.

Total revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, was $847.2 million, up 17 percent from $725.1 million a year earlier, which the company described as a record third quarter. For the first nine months of 2026, revenue reached $2.45 billion, up 36 percent. GAAP net income for the quarter was $127.0 million, reversing a $61.0 million net loss in the same period last year, with net income to common shareholders of $99.5 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.39. On an adjusted basis, which excludes acquisition- and integration-related items, diluted earnings per share came to $0.41, down slightly from $0.42 a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA was $198.6 million, down 3 percent from $205.6 million, with the adjusted EBITDA margin narrowing to 23.4 percent from 28.4 percent. The quarter's results topped the figures analysts had been modeling beforehand, which had clustered around $803 million to $816 million in revenue and roughly $0.35 in adjusted earnings per share.

A tale of three brands

The headline growth masked a sharp divergence by brand. Revenue from the Celsius-branded drinks that built the company fell about 6 percent to $356.8 million, which Celsius attributed to SKU optimization, inventory-rebalancing shipment timing, and softness in warehouse-club sales. Alani Nu, the brand Celsius acquired in 2025, grew about 24 percent to $410.1 million and is now Celsius's largest revenue source; for the nine-month period, Alani Nu revenue is up roughly 80 percent to $1.14 billion. Rockstar Energy, which Celsius took over for the U.S. and Canadian markets as part of its distribution arrangement with PepsiCo, contributed $80.3 million in the quarter, helped by strong Canadian order timing.

The company tied Alani Nu's growth specifically to wider distribution through PepsiCo's direct-store-delivery network and to a limited-time flavor collaboration branded Witch's Brew. Alani Nu's retail sales rose nearly 58 percent during the quarter, and the brand now holds just under a 10 percent dollar share of the U.S. ready-to-drink energy category, according to the release. Celsius said its combined brand portfolio accounted for roughly 28 percent of the growth in the broader U.S. zero-sugar energy category during the quarter.

"We delivered record quarterly revenue in the third quarter of 2026," Chief Executive John Fieldly said in the company's earnings release.

Margins give something back

Even with revenue climbing, profitability on a gross basis moved the other way. Gross margin fell 450 basis points to 46.8 percent, which the company attributed mainly to commodity inflation in aluminum and fuel, along with a higher mix of sales flowing through PepsiCo's direct-store-delivery system rather than direct shipments. That shift toward distributor-handled sales increases trade investment and billback costs that reduce reported net revenue even as volume grows, a dynamic the company flagged specifically in its release. Adjusted EBITDA margin compression told a similar story: even as adjusted EBITDA grew for the first nine months of the year, it declined on a dollar basis in the third quarter alone, falling to $198.6 million from $205.6 million.

Celsius's results are also still being shaped by its 2025 restructuring with PepsiCo, which holds an equity stake in the company of roughly 11 percent through convertible preferred shares and serves as the primary distributor for its drinks. The $61 million net loss Celsius posted in the same quarter last year was tied largely to a one-time accrual associated with migrating Alani Nu into PepsiCo's distribution network, a cost the company has said was substantially reimbursed by PepsiCo and amortized over the life of the distribution agreement. That comparison makes this quarter's swing to a $127 million profit look more dramatic than the underlying operating trend, since much of last year's charge was a one-time, largely non-cash item tied to the transition rather than a recurring drag.

Who is affected, and what comes next

The results matter beyond Celsius's own shareholders. PepsiCo's financial interest in Celsius means the beverage giant benefits directly from Alani Nu's and Rockstar's growth, while grocery and convenience retailers that stock the company's drinks are adjusting shelf space toward the faster-growing brands and away from the original Celsius lineup. Rival energy-drink makers, including Monster Beverage and Red Bull, face a strengthened multi-brand competitor that now draws on PepsiCo's distribution scale rather than the smaller network Celsius relied on before its acquisitions.

Celsius did not issue numerical guidance for the fourth quarter or full year in its release, saying instead that initiatives including freight optimization, raw-material sourcing alignment and revenue growth management are expected to support margin expansion over time, while acknowledging that near-term benefits have only partly offset commodity cost inflation so far. The company held a conference call with analysts at 8 a.m. Eastern time on the day of the release. Investors are likely to focus next on whether the softness in the core Celsius brand stabilizes, whether gross margin pressure eases as aluminum and fuel costs move, and how cleanly the Alani Nu and Rockstar integration continues to show up in results once the comparisons against last year's one-time PepsiCo-transition charges fall away.