Kirkland’s New Energy Drink Is Giving Celsius Investors the Jitters
Kirkland has sold you toilet paper, vodka, and a $1.50 hot dog without raising an eyebrow. Now it’s coming for energy drinks — and CelsiusCELH is already feeling the heat. Costco’sCOST private label launched cans that clone Celsius’ look, flavors, and caffeine content for roughly half the price, sendingCELH tumbling 16.6% in the past week.
- At $16.99 for a 24-pack vs. $37.99 for Celsius, Kirkland is priced to win — and Needham analyst Gerald Pascarelli says value-conscious shoppers are squarely in the crosshairs.
- To make matters worse, Costco accounts for 11% of Celsius’ annual sales — and Kirkland’s energy drink replicas are set to hit every Costco location nationwide by May.
Not so fast: According to JP Morgan, the selloff is overdone. Private labels like Amazon’sAMZN Solimo have largely failed to stick in the energy drinks category, and Kirkland’s low-price entry point could expand the market. Still, the real threat isn’t shelf competition — Kirkland is Costco’s quiet crowbar, built to extract better terms from the very national brands it carries. With GLP-1 users flocking to fitness-forward drinks, the category is still growing, but May’s full rollout is the first real scorecard.