New products energise Hansen's Q2
Natural, continues to thrive, reporting record sales and profits
for the second quarter, thanks to new product launches.
Gross sales for the second quarter increased 65.4 percent to $58.0 million, up from $35.1 million a year earlier, while net sales grew by 62.1 per cent to $46.1 million from $28.4 million in 2003.
Likewise, operating income increased from $3.3 million in 2003 to $8.4 million and net income shot up to $5.1 million, or $0.43 per diluted share, from $2.0 million, or $0.19 per diluted share, last year. Rodney Sacks, chairman and CEO of the California based corporation, said the strong performance was primarily thanks to the success of recently launched brands.
"This continues to reflect strong consumer demand for Monster Energy drinks, which were introduced in 2002, Lo-Carb Monster Energy drinks, which were introduced in August 2003 and Lost Energy drinks, which were introduced in January 2004," he said.
However, other products did not perform so well, including children's multi-vitamin juice drinks, smoothies, and Diet Red Energy drinks. The newest of Hansen's products is the Lost energy drinks range, which was launched earlier this year to target "generation X", namely 15-25 year olds, and which proved an "instant success", according to the company.
The energy drinks market - as opposed to the more established sports drink market - is a fairly new addition to the ever-increasing range of beverages available to the consumer, and has only held any kind of real profile since 1999.
Together sports and energy drinks currently hold a 3.5 percent share of the soft drinks market in the US, according to a survey carried out by the research company Canadean, with the average annual rate of volume growth over last five years standing at 8.5 percent - as opposed to 10.5 percent over the last 9 years.
Energy drinks are contributing to these figures with fast growth in on-premise sales, but they still remain a small category accounting for less than one percent of all soft drinks consumption. This growth was originally driven by Red Bull, but this drink's success is now being followed by other brands, such as those produced by Hansen.
