Monster Beverage Corporation (NASDAQ:MNST) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Hilton Schlosberg: Okay. Chris, to answer your first question, we don’t give guidance. And I actually gave quite a robust explanation of what we see the runway for margins. So, I just really don’t want to estimate it because we really don’t give guidance. But I think I gave you a good sense of where we are, probably too much, but that is where it is. In respect of the price increase in the US in September, we actually limited the bottlers to the extent of how much they could buy in. So, I don’t think that there was — in fact, we don’t think there was any much pull forward from Q3. I think it was just a question of the market stabilizing. As you know, with when price increases are put into effect, there’s always a little bit of a bump as you go into more steady waters.

And everything we know and that we’ve heard is the price really — the price increase is actually sticking. So, we had a little bit more promotional allowances in the fourth quarter, and you’ll see that in the K is released, but that’s really consistent with bleeding in a price increase to a market in the consumer goods industry.

Rodney Sacks: I think the only other thing I would like to just — maybe just to add on that is that towards the end of the fourth quarter, I think we were not alone. I think there was a number of companies felt some softness in the consumer pool in — primarily in December. But that was — and that happened. And then we think we’ve seen an uptick again in January as we’ve indicated from our January numbers and you can see from the Nielsen numbers. So, it probably was a little bit of a combination of just an initial hesitancy from consumers to the price increase and then ultimately just some consumer softness, but that seems to have remedies itself in the first quarter now?

Operator: The next question comes from Andrea Teixeira of JPMorgan.

Drew Levine: Hi. Thank you. This is Drew Levine on for Andrea. Thank you for taking our questions. So, Ron, I want to continue on that point on the sort of rebound in January, and it also seemed like there was an acceleration for both Monster and the category on a three-year stack or three year CAGR basis. So just wondering what you’re sort of attributing that underlying strength in consumption too, do you think it’s the new product launches, increased interest in the category, gas prices coming down? So, any thoughts around that would be helpful. Thank you.

Rodney Sacks: I think it’s a combination of those things. I think we have got gas prices coming down. I think we have seen sort of now sort of increase in convenience. I remember, last year. Convenience was always ahead of the grocery and mass channels. And last year has sort of reversed, and convenience was a little slow. That seems to be coming back a little bit. And we just think that, again, pricing has sort of settled down a bit. But you can see across the whole category, there has been an increase in the Nielsen numbers across the category for most people and our competitors. So, we’re just are seeing just a little bit of resurgence of confidence again.

Hilton Schlosberg: Yes, the other thing I think you should do is have a look at the — when we announced third quarter results, we spoke about the October sales. And if you look at the October sales, it’s not inconsistent with the quarter. And I’ll talk about the fourth quarter of 2022, sorry.

Operator: The next question comes from Mark Astrachan of Stifel. Please go ahead.

Mark Astrachan: Yes, thanks, and good afternoon. So hopefully, you’re doing all right there, Rodney.

Rodney Sacks: Yes, I’m fine. Just sort of remnants of a cough for the last couple of weeks.