Insights | Thirsty Insights

2 Mar

How Celsius Turned the Alani Nu Acquisition Into a Cash Machine

Last Thursday, Celsius Holdings reported Q4 and full-year 2025 results, and they were a blockbuster. Full-year revenue surged +86%, with Q4 alone up an eye-popping +117%. Investors rewarded the print immediately: Celsius stock popped +10% at the open, capping a +105% run over the past twelve months. The catalyst behind this acceleration? Celsius's deliberate evolution from a single brand into a scaled brand platform. At CAGNY a few weeks ago, they laid it out in a single slide. [...]

By Matt Rice M&A , Corporate Strategy Read More

9 Feb

The Cheat Code For The Next Big Thing

Here's a pattern that keeps repeating: what teenagers drink today often predicts what 21+ consumers will drink 5-7 years from now. Not just the flavors, but the format, carbonation levels, and even how they discover brands. Three recent examples: [...]

By Matt Rice Consumer Behavior Read More

27 Oct

How Leading Brand Marketshare Evolves Over Time

High Noon today commands nearly 40% market share, a level of dominance that's fairly rare in beverage alcohol. A #1 brand holding 40% of a category only happens once or twice a decade, typically in rapidly emerging segments. [...]

By Matt Rice Category Evolution Read More

27 Oct

Battle Of The Celebrity-Backed $1B Acquisitions

Last week, e.l.f. Beauty released unusually detailed financials around their acquisition of Hailey Bieber's Rhode beauty brand. Why is a beverage newsletter talking about skincare? Two reasons: The similarities to Casamigos are striking, both brands were ~3 years old at acquisition, and both sold for nearly identical amounts ($700-800M upfront + earnouts totaling $1B) [...]

By Matt Rice M&A Read More

20 Oct

10 Years of Premiumization In Spirits

This week, there was a lot of press around premiumization in various spirits categories. So we decided to see how "premium" each category was today and how it's evolved. [...]

By Matt Rice Category Evolution Read More

14 Oct

How Sazerac Became The #1 Spirits Supplier in the U.S.

Last week, we reported that Sazerac had acquired Western Son Vodka, a Texas-based distillery known for its 10x distilled, gluten-free vodka made from 100% American corn. What many don’t realize: Sazerac is now the largest spirits company in the U.S. by volume. Privately owned, the company keeps a low profile, but its growth tells a bold story. [...]

By Matt Rice M&A Read More

7 Aug

The Churn In Cannabis Beverages

Given the rapid regulatory oscillation in Texas around Delta-9, we thought it would be interesting to examine one of the biggest opportunities today with Delta-9 beverages: improving repeat purchase rates and reducing brand churn. Right now, repeat purchase rates are... well, let's say they're a work in progress. They're trending up, but only about a third of what we see in the top energy drink or bev-alc brands. U [...]

By Matt Rice Consumer Behavior , Category Evolution Read More

2 Feb

Why Companies Win - Looking Back at Spirits RTDs in 2019

This week, we decided to rewind to 2019 and investigate whether there were any indicators that could have predicted High Noon's success. First, let's set the stage for what was happening in Beverage Alcohol in 2019: [...]

By Matt Rice Corporate Strategy , Category Evolution Read More

20 Jan

The World Cup's Expected Impact on Beer

Will the 2026 World Cup Actually Sell More Beer? (Spoiler: It's Complicated) People seem to think the World Cup is going to send beer sales through the roof. Not so fast my friend. We decided to actually check what has happened historically. Here's what we did: We dug into two recent World Cups of note: [...]

By Matt Rice Industry Analytics Read More