Monster Beverage benefits from international expansion in Q3

Monster Beverage recorded net sales of over $1 billion for the second consecutive quarter as the company continues to grow globally. 

The energy drink firm saw its net sales increase 11.7% in the three months to 30 September, reaching $1.02 billion – only the second time it has posted quarterly revenues over $1 billion.

During the quarter, the California-headquartered company launched Monster Energy in Ecuador and Ukraine and its Mutant beverage in Vietnam and Myanmar. Net sales to customers outside the US increased by 8.8%.

Net sales for the company’s Monster Energy Drinks segment were up 13% to $935.1 million.

Meanwhile, revenues from the firm’s strategic brands segment, which includes various energy drink brands acquired from The Coca-Cola Company, decreased 2.8% to $74.4 million.

The company’s net income for the third quarter rose 22.4% to $267.7 million.

Monster Beverage CEO Rodney Sacks said: “We are pleased to report record third-quarter net sales of more than $1 billion, further demonstrating the strength of our brands.

“We continue to make progress in our strategic alignment with Coca-Cola system bottlers and have now fully transitioned Monster Energy from our former Anheuser-Busch distributors to Coca-Cola bottlers in the United States. In the third quarter of 2018, we transitioned Monster Energy in the remainder of Arkansas.

“We have expanded the distribution of Monster Energy to 40 of the largest cities in India. Our products are now distributed in 75% of the country, and we anticipate national distribution by 2018 year end.

“Monster Energy was launched in Ecuador and Ukraine in the third quarter and we are planning further international launches later this year and in 2019. Mutant energy, one of our affordable energy brands, was launched in Myanmar and Vietnam in the third quarter.

“We recently launched Predator, our strategically preferred affordable energy brand, in South Africa and are planning launches of Predator in selected additional markets in Eastern Europe and Africa.”