Celsius boosts production capabilities with acquisition of Big Beverages Contract Manufacturing

The $75m deal will give Celsius a modern 170,000-square-foot beverage manufacturing facility and production line and warehouse.

Better-for-you functional beverage brand Celsius surpassed the $1bn sales milestone last year​ thanks to success in its home US market, with growth outpacing the overall energy category tenfold.

While the brand was founded in 2004, the brand as grown exponentially over the last few years and now has a long-term distribution agreement with PepsiCo (which made a $550m investment​ in the brand in 2022 in return for a 8.5% ownership share).

Charlotte, N.C.-based Big Beverages is a longtime Celsius co-packer, and the facility will continue to be principally dedicated to the manufacture of Celsius products.

But Celsius says the acquisition will also give it greater supply chain control, quicker innovation cycles and greater production flexibility. That, in particular, will benefit limited time offer (LTO) products.

The facility also comes with future expansion opportunities with the ability to add additional capacity as Celsius continues to grow.

The Big Beverages management team and workforce are expected to remain with the operation.

“We believe that this acquisition gives Celsius fantastic leverage to accelerate our product innovation and production capabilities so we can continue growing the energy drink category with our great tasting, functional and better-for-you performance energy drinks,” said John Fieldly, Chairman and CEO of Celsius. “The experienced team and modern facilities at Big Beverages are best-in-class.

“Vertical integration is a capital efficient growth lever that supports our vision to become the nation’s leading energy drink brand and unlocks shareholder value potential through better margin and profit structure.”