The two South Africans who built a global powerhouse – outperforming Apple and Microsoft

Two South Africans, Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg, built the highly successful Monster Beverage Corporation, whose shares outperformed Apple, Microsoft, and Google.

The Monster Beverage Corporation has its roots in the Hansen Natural Corporation which dates back over a hundred years.

In the 1930s, Hubert Hansen and his sons began selling juice to retailers under the company name “Hansen’s Fruit and Vegetable Juices”.

Forty years later, Hubert Hansen’s grandson also started to develop sodas under the Hansen name.

Despite its early success, the Hansen company struggled and raked up big losses by the late eighties.

By this time, Sacks and Schlosberg had moved from South Africa to the United States and were ready for a big business move.

They joined forces to acquire Hansen Natural Corporation for $1.71 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt.

Since the 1990 acquisition, Sacks has been chairman and CEO of Hansen Natural Corporation, and Schlosberg has served as president and COO.

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.

What makes Monster Beverage Corporation stand out, apart from its energy drinks, is its stellar financial performance.

Over the last 25 years, between April 1999 and April 2024, Monster was the best-performing share in the United States.

An analysis by YCharts showed that a $10,000 investment into Monster Beverage 25 years ago would be worth $13.86 million today.

Monster outperformed well-known market darlings like Nvidia, Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon.

This growth also made Sacks and Schlosberg billionaires and gave them the title of the world’s best value creators.

The two men behind Monster Beverage Corporation’s success, Rodney Sacks and Hilton Schlosberg, were born and raised in South Africa.

Sacks was born in South Africa in 1949 into a Lithuanian-Jewish family. His father was Johannesburg businessman Wolfe Harry Sacks.

He graduated from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) with a law degree and a postgraduate higher diploma in tax law.

After graduating, he joined the country’s largest corporate law firm, Werksmans. He excelled and became the youngest partner the firm has ever had.

After two decades at Werksmans, in 1989, Sacks left the law firm and emigrated to California with his family.

Schlosberg was born in South Africa and, like Sacks, attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.

He is very private, and little information is available about his personal life before he and Sacks acquired Hansen Natural Corporation.

Schlosberg has been the company’s CFO since July 1996, an executive committee member since October 1992, and vice chairman and director from July 1992 to the present.

In January 2021, 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.

Monster said Sacks will continue to “manage certain areas of the company’s business for which he has always been responsible”.

Co-CEO Schlosberg will become the sole chief executive in 2025, while Sacks remains chairman of the company.

The latest Forbes Real Time Billionaires list shows that Rodney Sacks has a net wealth of $3 billion, and Hilton Schlosberg has a net wealth of $2.9 billion.

Sacks and Schlosberg rank as two of the thousand richest people in the world.

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