A high stakes battle for control is brewing at Celsius Holdings as Russ Savage, the billionaire founder of Rockstar Energy, has emerged as a major shareholder with an explicit goal of replacing the company’s top leadership. After purchasing millions of shares to secure a stake representing roughly 4.7 percent of the company, Savage is calling for the immediate removal of the CEO, COO, and key marketing managers. The move comes on the heels of a disappointing second quarter earnings report that saw Celsius miss both revenue and profit expectations, sending the company’s stock tumbling nearly 18 percent in a single day.
Savage, who famously built Rockstar from a modest mortgage into a multi billion dollar empire before selling it to PepsiCo in 2020, claims he has spent over a year privately advising Celsius on how to trim its cost structure and refine its marketing. According to Savage, those warnings went unheeded by current management. He argues that the company has grown bloated with too many layers of bureaucracy and lacks basic accountability. In a blunt assessment shared with CNBC, he stated that the organization needs a single decision maker rather than a committee approach, effectively volunteering himself to step in as CEO to stabilize the ship.
One of Savage’s primary concerns centers on the loss of retail visibility. During an earnings call, Celsius CEO John Fieldly suggested that some product availability had dipped due to a deliberate effort to rationalize their lineup and integrate acquisitions like Alani Nu. To Savage, this admission is catastrophic. He warned that in the cutthroat world of energy drinks, losing shelf space is often an irreversible mistake because retailers will quickly hand those slots to dominant rivals like Red Bull or Monster. For him, giving up territory voluntarily is a sign of mismanagement that requires urgent correction_
For its part, Celsius has responded with measured corporate diplomacy, stating they welcome value creating ideas from any shareholder while remaining confident in their overall strategy. Management insists that demand for their health conscious beverages remains resilient and that they are simply navigating a transition period within their broader portfolio. Despite these assurances, Savage believes the current leadership has lost credibility with investors. Having accumulated much of his position when shares were trading lower earlier this year, he maintains that while he initially viewed Celsius as an undervalued gem, he now sees it as a business in need of rescue before the damage becomes permanent.