John Fieldly runs the world's fastest-growing energy drink company. His inspiration to succeed in business, though, dates way back to age four when he'd tag along to the auto-body shop where his dad painted cars.
"I was basically my dad's gofer," the CEO of Celsius Holdings told IBD. "He'd tell me which tool to get and I'd go get it for him."
That wasn't all he learned from his dad. He also learned how to lead — as his dad evolved from auto shop painter to auto shop owner. "Being a great leader is being a bit of a psychologist as well," he said. "Being able to motivate teams is an extremely important attribute."
Celsius CEO: Have A Gofer Mentality
Yet Fieldly, 42, still believes that it's the gofer in himself — that part that learned tool by tool at the auto body shop how to get a job done — that helps to account for his wild success at Celsius.
How successful?
Celsius is growing faster than giants Red Bull, Monster Beverage and Rockstar in the $53 billion energy drink category. Celsius drives a whopping 29% of the growth in the energy drink category, according to data from market researcher IRI for the 12-week period ending Oct. 2, 2022.
What's more, the trade publication Beverage Industry recently named Fieldly its 2022 Executive of the Year. That, in part, was thanks to an announcement back in August that Celsius and PepsiCo entered into a long-term, global distribution deal. PepsiCo invested $550 million in Celsius convertible preferred stock and owns 8% of the company.
Investors are glad to be along for the ride. Shares are up more than 1,800% since Fieldly took over as CEO in April 2018, smashing the S&P 500's 43% rise in that time.
Find New Places For Your Product
Under Fieldly's leadership, Celsius is a growth machine. Celsius is the top brand driver of growth in the energy drink category, responsible for 29% of category growth — driving over $122.7 million in incremental sales for the third quarter of 2022, according to IRI.
And the number of U.S. stores selling Celsius products has surpassed 169,000 — thanks to adding a whopping 59,000 storefronts the past year — a 54% increase from the second quarter of 2021.
Celsius is eying more convenience stores. That, after all, is where 70% of energy drinks are sold, Fieldly says. Much of the company's growth has been in the lucrative convenience store sector, where Celsius is now sold in more than 82,000 locations. The distribution deal with PepsiCo has helped Celsius land in so many of these stores.
Fieldly: Use Leadership To Grow
But what's the real driver of this growth? In a word: leadership. "You have to believe in your team and you have to trust them to execute," Fieldly said.
You also must know your customer. For that, he says, Celsius mines data and analytics. But it also requires getting out in the field and speaking with customers. And, yes, the company does lots of focus groups and regularly interacts with brand ambassadors before taking actions such as introducing new flavors.
When Fieldly talks, the industry listens.
Yet for a guy who is transforming a company and an industry inside out, his day-to-day actions are "the very opposite of showy," says Caroline Levy, who was a beverage stock analyst before joining Celsius' board of directors. Levy says Fieldly spurns fancy lunches and typically opts to buy a sandwich or salad and bring it back to his desk.
Perhaps that's what makes him so approachable, she says.
Back when she was an investment banker visiting Celsius, Levy says, she'd expect to sit down with the company's various division heads but, instead, Fieldly walked the various floors of the company's headquarters. He introduced her to every employee by name. "There's nothing he'd rather do than check in with employees," she said.
Include Employees Like The Celsius CEO
When Celsius was selected to ring the bell at Nasdaq, Fieldly — who is typically tightfisted when it comes to company travel — insisted on flying in dozens of employees from all over the world to be a part of the Wall Street celebration, she says. "It was a very inclusive, share-the-praise moment," she said. "He never takes the praise for himself. That's the hallmark of a great leader."
The other hallmark of a great leader is finding — and exploiting — any avenue that makes your brand stand out. For Fieldly, that's been to link the Celsius brand with health and wellness.
Since he was named CEO in 2018, he's overseen a turnaround story that's been laser-focused on getting Celsius into gyms and health clubs, where he's built loyal customers. The brand is often the first to show up at active events like 5-K races and other outdoor festivals.
"We want to engage with the consumer where they live, work and play," says Fieldly.
He takes pride that Celsius uses no preservatives, no aspartame, no high fructose corn syrup, no artificial flavor or colors, and is GMO-free. And he points to six different scientific studies showing drinking Celsius can help to burn body fat. One University of Oklahoma study, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, concluded that overweight and obese women who drank Celsius prior to moderate exercise displayed increased fat loss, increased muscle mass, increased endurance performance, and significant improvements to blood lipid profiles when compared with exercise alone.
Live Your Product
Fieldly lives the life he preaches, too.
He rises early, engages in a brisk morning workout, eats a light breakfast of fruit and eggs, and typically arrives at the office by 7:30 a.m. He spends his first 45 minutes or so at work planning out the day. After lunch, he says, he typically takes a midday walk "to get some fresh air and Vitamin D."
That said, he often spends almost as much time planning as doing. He's a list maker extraordinaire. Before he leaves the office in the evening, he's typically created a list of things to do for the next day. And he makes his lists the old-fashioned way: in notepads. "I'm old school with pen and paper," he said.
Fieldly: Turn Negatives Into Positives
He's also old school about trying to make lemonade out of lemons — as he did during the pandemic.
When Covid-19 struck in March 2020, he recalls how most employees were terrified to work anywhere but from home. So the company put brand-new strategies in place and created new task forces to motivate employees who were working from home.
All the gyms were suddenly closed. But the company reached personal trainers from all the gyms and health clubs and partnered with them to conduct online workouts from home during the pandemic. "This allowed personal trainers to expand their client base and gain more brand awareness for themselves," he said.
Another way for leaders to stay ahead of the game, he says, is to learn something new every day. On the day of this interview, for example, he met with the Celsius sales team and learned more about the new distribution method under the partnership with PepsiCo.
If he had it to do over again, he says, he would have taken more psychology classes at college. Additional time spent studying psychology, he says, might have helped him to become an even better motivator of people.
Do Work You're Proud Of
Real success at the workplace — no matter what your role is — only comes with a sense of achievement, he says. "When you look back, you want to be proud of the work you've done."
He sure is. He's particularly proud, he says, of the environmental efforts that Celsius is taking to reduce its carbon footprint and reduce its use of plastics.
In the end, he says, living a good life is about the people you touch along the way. "Helping others is the only thing that matters," he said. Kind of like what he used to do handing tools to his dad at the auto shop.
Fast-forward to today, and Fieldly occasionally asks his teenage daughter and son to come along and help him stock the Celsius shelves or displays at stores. "We do it for fun," he says. "But there's some learning in there, too."
John Fieldly's Keys
- CEO of fast-growing energy drink company Celsius Holdings, he oversaw a remarkable turnaround.
- Overcame: Severe financial troubles, including cash burn at Celsius when first brought in as chief financial officer in 2012.
- Lesson: "You have to believe in your team and you have to trust them to execute."
