The Energy Drink Bull Market

As an everyday investor, I enjoy the occasional visit to a grocery store or convenience store to get a feel for what’s trending or popular. What’s priced competitively or sold out vs. what’s on sale and struggling.

I suppose this is the investor nerd in me, whereby everything is a potential opportunity to find a cool brand, company or product to one day add to my portfolio… after countless hours of research, of course.

In the last several years, few products have showcased this to me than energy drinks. To most of us, energy drinks are a somewhat bizarre concept. Why not just have a cup of coffee? Why have all those additives and sugars? What about water?

But to the markets, energy drinks are one of the greatest investments of our lifetime. For example, Monster Beverage, yes that crazy green can with a ton of sugar has incredible returns:

I never tried Monster or got into it because of its high sugar content. Most recently, there was Celsius. You’ve probably seen that drink around. I’ve actually dabbled with Celsius because of its health profile and approach to using less sugar, and more-so alternative ingredients like green tea extract. Of course, it still has problems with it, but look at the returns in just 5 years:

What I find so fascinating about this is how we obsess over the latest tech stocks or the latest new advances in AI, when energy drinks have been right in front of us. Did you see the latest headline about the gut biome soda drink called Olipop?

On X/Twitter all the great minds are “tech founders” and “tech CEOs” and on Instagram all the most followed people are “famous” celebrities and actors and models. Meanwhile, in the wild world of energy drinks, sales are booming, equity markets are ripping, and money is being made. Yet, there are no famous energy drink CEOs. It is not making front page news like Apple or Netflix.

I believe that the implications are bigger than most realize and I am just putting it together:

• There is still huge opportunity in the reinvention of metabolized energy

• Coffee is facing its greatest competition ever

• Pepsi and Coca-cola still do not have an answer for this

• Starbucks and other coffee chains have no answer for this

• The anti-sugar movement is still ongoing

• Are we are country shifting from sugar overdoes to caffeine overdose?

• What can these drinks actually do for us relative to what western medicine can do for us?

• Who will be the emerging brands of the future?

I’ll be watching from my nearest grocery store.

Written by Stefan Cheplick, a fintech builder and writer with experience at Stocktwits and TradingView. Background and published work.