Monster Beverage co-founder and billionaire Hilton Schlosberg will become the company’s new chief executive officer on 13 June 2025.
Schlosberg and his business partner, Rodney Sacks, are the force behind the highly successful Monster Beverage Corporation, whose shares outperformed Apple, Microsoft, and Google.
Schlosberg was born in 1952 in South Africa and, like Sacks, attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
He moved to the United States, and in 1990, Schlosberg partnered with Sacks to lead a consortium to acquire Hansen Natural Corporation.
Hansen Natural Corporation dates back to the 1930s, when Hubert Hansen and his sons began selling juice to retailers under the name “Hansen’s Fruit and Vegetable Juices.”
Tim Hansen, Hubert Hansen’s grandson, developed and marketed a variety of sodas and juices under Hansen’s label.
The Hansen company struggled and raked up significant losses by the late eighties. It filed for bankruptcy in 1988.
Sacks and Schlosberg acquired Hansen Natural Corporation in 1990 for $1.71 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt.
The company performed well. However, a step change occurred in 2002 when Monster Energy launched. Within ten years, the company increased revenue to $2 billion.
So successful was Monster Energy that the Hansen Natural Corporation changed its name to Monster Beverage Corporation in 2012.
Monster drinks are now sold in 141 countries, and the company has a significant share of the $53 billion global energy drink market.
The company’s brands include Monster Energy, Burn, NOS, Full Throttle, Relentless, Mother, Reign, Predator, Bang, Canarchy, and Tour Water.
What makes Monster Beverage Corporation, which is now based in Corona, California, stand out, apart from its energy drinks, is its stellar financial performance.
Between April 1999 and April 2024, Monster was the best-performing stock in the United States, outperforming Apple, Microsoft, and Google.
This growth also made Sacks and Schlosberg billionaires and gave them the title of the world’s best value creators.
Hilton Schlosberg’s long career at Monster Beverage Corporation
Since the acquisition, Sacks has been chairman and CEO of Hansen Natural Corporation, and Schlosberg has served as president and COO.
He has been an executive committee member since October 1992 and vice chairman and director since July 1992. Schlosberg became CFO in July 1996.
In January 2021, at 69, Schlosberg was promoted to co-CEO from chief financial officer. He served alongside Sacks in the role.
In May 2024, the company announced Sacks would reduce his day-to-day responsibilities as co-chief executive.
Last month, Monster Beverage announced Hilton Schlosberg as its new chief executive officer, effective June 13, 2025.
Schlosberg will succeed his long-time business partner, Sacks, who will step down as Monster Beverage co-CEO on 12 June 2025.
Sacks, 75, will continue serving as board chairman, subject to re-election at the company’s annual meetings in 2025 and 2026.
He will remain involved in Monster’s strategic initiatives, focusing on marketing, innovation, and litigation, until his retirement on 31 December 2026.
Schlosberg has been with Monster Beverage for over 30 years, holding several key leadership positions, including 23 years as the company’s CFO.
Most recently, he worked alongside Sacks as co-CEO, a role he assumed in 2021. The leadership transition comes as Monster Beverage reports strong financial performance.
In its recently released fourth quarter results, Monster Beverage Corporation recorded a 4.7% year-over-year increase in net sales, reaching $1.81 billion.
This exceeded analysts’ estimates of a 3.73% rise to $1.80 billion, driven by strong demand for its energy drinks and beverages.
The Monster Energy drinks segment, the company’s primary revenue driver, saw a 4.5% increase in net sales, reaching $1.67 billion in Q4 2024.
For the full year, Monster Beverage reported a 4.9% rise in net sales to US$7.49 billion, up from US$7.14 billion in 2023.
The company’s adjusted gross profit margin improved to 54.2%, compared to 53.3% in the previous year, supported by global pricing actions.
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