Sree Kouchugovindan, Aberdeen, Senior Research Economist on Tariffs
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
26 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Liquid Death CEO on energy drink push, consumers, & growth
Liquid Death ( is keeping close watch on aluminum tariffs, but the impact so far has been minimal. Liquid Death founder and CEO Mike Cessario joins Asking for a Trend with Josh Lipton and Yahoo Finance Senior Reporter Brooke DiPalma to discuss the state of the consumer, Liquid Death's expansion into energy drinks, and whether the company is considering an initial public offering (IPO). To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Asking for a Trend here. Mike, welcome and let's start with you. You know, Mike, Trump and trade and tariffs obviously have been front and center for investors, Mike. Could you walk us through whether Liquid Death might do you all have tariff exposure and if so, how you navigate in that? Yeah. I mean, I think with everything, it's been things that go back and forth. They're saying one thing but then not another. I think for us, you know, aluminum cans and aluminum that that's definitely one that we have to keep an eye on, but I mean, as we're seeing now, actual implications are not anything too material to to us that we're seeing right now. But and obviously, we keep a close eye on it. You know, Mike, we're always looking for for line of sight to the consumer. So I'm just curious, based on your business, Mike and what you're seeing, what do you see with the consumer? How how healthy? How resilient, Mike? Does the consumer look to you? Yeah, I think it's a, you know, you can see across CPG and beverage brands, it's it's been a tough year with with the consumer. Um, but I think what you've typically seen in the past, even in recession periods, premium brands tend to still do well in those periods, cuz it might be that, hey, people are not going out to the bar to go spend a hundred bucks on drinks, so they have people at the house, but you're not going to stock the cheap stuff at your house and invite people over, like you probably buy the good stuff, and you kind of create the going out experience in a in a more, you know, cheaper environment. So, you know, we haven't seen through since we've launched all the different things, COVID, everything, um, you know, we've never been hit too hard by, you know, kind of a a shifting consumer sentiment. Mike, you're moving into the fourth category. You're in water, you're in iced tea, sparkling water. Now you're getting into energy and there's just been so much noise in this space. Molson Coors acquired Zoa Energy late last year. We have Celsius buying out Alani. Why does Liquid Death also needs to be in this space too? So, if you look at our brand, right? We are we've always been a more of a younger, millennial, Gen Z brand. And what we've been really successful at is bringing new, younger consumers into these kind of old boring categories that are very very health conscious, like water and low calorie flavored sparkling water. And when you look at those categories, 50% of the sales in either of those in water come from people over the age of 40. In energy drinks, less than 10% of the sales come from people over 40. So, our existing people that follow our brand, we have a massive audience. We just passed Monster Energy for social followers on Instagram and Tik Tok combined. We have over almost 15 million followers, only Red Bulls ahead of us. So, we have this massive audience that love what we do, love our marketing, but maybe they're not frequent consumers of plain water or low calorie sparkling, but they do drink a ton of energy. And how can Liquid Death create a better a truly better for you option in this space that then allows us to convert more of our massive fan base into more frequent drinkers. Mike, I've loved following your marketing campaigns, all the energy behind the brand over the past three years and back in October 2022, when we chatted, you had told Yahoo Finance that you were exploring all possible paths. And we do have a new report from the S&P Global out this morning saying that IPO activity in Q2 was up more than 33% compared to Q1. And so, Mike, is an IPO on the table for Liquid Death? Look, I mean, we're really just focused on building a big, profitable business. And as long as we are able to achieve that and keep our eye on that goal, we're going to have all the optionality that we want and, you know, timing optionality of when we would want to go if we did want to go. So, yeah, we don't have anything specifically set in mind, um, or planned. We're just looking at how do we maximize our optionality where if we want IPO as an option, then it's a realistic option for us. Mike, it's been pretty amazing to see the M&As that have happened though this year. Pepsico buying out Poppi, your current valuation at 1.7 1.4 billion dollars as of last year. So, M&A, what do you make of this in this space right now? It's certainly buzzing. Yeah, I think you can see that a lot of the, um, the bigger brands have really been struggling with growth over the last two years, and predominantly the last year. So I think the appetites finally now that you can't keep raising price, which is kind of the growth lever through a lot of COVID isn't there, they're, you know, they they have to now start invest they're starting to invest in acquiring growth through some of these M&A deals with these brands. Mike, I have to ask you about uh, Ozzy Osbourne as well, Mike, who, of course, passed away this week. You all had a partnership with Ozzy. Mike, could you just walk us through that partnership, how it came about, Mike, and what it meant for the company? Yeah, I mean, I grew up listening to punk and metal music and Ozzy was a huge sort of influence for me. So, when we got to work with him, um, about two years ago, the first time and then very recently, we we did something else with them. It was so cool for for me and, you know, just what a great guy and family, like they were so easy to work with. And, um, yeah, I mean, pretty wild that one of the last things that he did before he died was a Liquid Death campaign where we sold his DNA on cans of Liquid Death iced tea. Um, so, yeah, was pretty sad to see him go. But, um, What was the what was the reception that, like Mike? It was incredible. It's one of our highest performing social things we've done in a long time. And yeah, I mean, I think people are reselling the cans on eBay right now for like $20,000 a piece. Wow. So, um, yeah, I think it was just a really fun way to you know, celebrate Ozzy as like there will never be another Ozzy Osborne. So literally, the only way is if you clone them. I think that was kind of a fun sentiment to to put out there. Related Videos How meme stock mania is a 'sign of the times' 'We ask for more data' than FICO: VantageScore CEO Exciting Time, Data Center Construction Booming: Aon CFO Low volatility, US dollar, tech 'super boom': Market Takeaways Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Bloomberg
28 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
'We ask for more data' than FICO: VantageScore CEO
Bloomberg Markets: The Close Silvio Tavares, VantageScore CEO, emphasizes that mortgage lenders want to use VantageScore, stressing that the company has more data and uses modern technology. He speaks to Romaine Bostick and Scarlet Fu on "The Close." (Source: Bloomberg)
Bloomberg
28 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Must build out infrastructure to achieve AI dominance: Onsemi CEO
Hassane El-Khoury, Onsemi CEO, says the company is still focused on the automotive industry and is making its way into AI. He speaks to Romaine Bostick and Scarlet Fu on "The Close." (Source: Bloomberg)
