{"id":822439,"date":"2025-04-29T15:29:32","date_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:29:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=822439"},"modified":"2025-04-29T15:29:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-29T13:29:48","slug":"the-south-african-billionaire-who-became-ceo-at-73","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/business\/822439\/the-south-african-billionaire-who-became-ceo-at-73\/","title":{"rendered":"The South African billionaire who became CEO at 73"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Monster Beverage co-founder and billionaire Hilton Schlosberg will become the company\u2019s new chief executive officer on 13 June 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlosberg and his business partner, Rodney Sacks, are the force behind the highly successful Monster Beverage Corporation, whose shares outperformed Apple, Microsoft, and Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlosberg was born in 1952 in South Africa and, like Sacks, attended the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He moved to the United States, and in 1990, Schlosberg partnered with Sacks to lead a consortium to acquire Hansen Natural Corporation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hansen Natural Corporation dates back to the 1930s, when Hubert Hansen and his sons began selling juice to retailers under the name \u201cHansen\u2019s Fruit and Vegetable Juices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Hansen, Hubert Hansen’s grandson, developed and marketed a variety of sodas and juices under Hansen’s label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hansen company struggled and raked up significant losses by the late eighties. It filed for bankruptcy in 1988.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sacks and Schlosberg acquired Hansen Natural Corporation in 1990 for $1.71 million and the assumption of $12 million in debt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So successful was Monster Energy that the Hansen Natural Corporation changed its name to Monster Beverage Corporation in 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monster drinks are now sold in 141 countries, and the company has a significant share of the $53 billion global energy drink market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s brands include Monster Energy, Burn, NOS, Full Throttle, Relentless, Mother, Reign, Predator, Bang, Canarchy, and Tour Water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes Monster Beverage Corporation, which is now based in Corona, California, stand out, apart from its energy drinks, is its stellar financial performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between April 1999 and April 2024, Monster was the best-performing stock in the United States, outperforming Apple, Microsoft, and Google.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This growth also made Sacks and Schlosberg billionaires and gave them the title of the world\u2019s best value creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hilton Schlosberg’s long career at Monster Beverage Corporation<\/h2>\n\n\n
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New Monster Beverage CEO Hilton Schlosberg (right)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Since the acquisition, Sacks has been chairman and CEO of Hansen Natural Corporation, and Schlosberg has served as president and COO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has been an executive committee member since October 1992 and vice chairman and director since July 1992. Schlosberg became CFO in July 1996.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2021, at 69, Schlosberg was promoted to co-CEO from chief financial officer. He served alongside Sacks in the role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2024, the company announced Sacks would reduce his day-to-day responsibilities as co-chief executive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, Monster Beverage announced Hilton Schlosberg as its new chief executive officer, effective June 13, 2025. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlosberg will succeed his long-time business partner, Sacks, who will step down as Monster Beverage co-CEO on 12 June 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sacks, 75, will continue serving as board chairman, subject to re-election at the company\u2019s annual meetings in 2025 and 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He will remain involved in Monster\u2019s strategic initiatives, focusing on marketing, innovation, and litigation, until his retirement on 31 December 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schlosberg has been with Monster Beverage for over 30 years, holding several key leadership positions, including 23 years as the company\u2019s CFO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This exceeded analysts\u2019 estimates of a 3.73% rise to $1.80 billion, driven by strong demand for its energy drinks and beverages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Monster Energy drinks segment, the company\u2019s primary revenue driver, saw a 4.5% increase in net sales, reaching $1.67 billion in Q4 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company\u2019s adjusted gross profit margin improved to 54.2%, compared to 53.3% in the previous year, supported by global pricing actions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monster Beverage co-founder and billionaire Hilton Schlosberg will become the company\u2019s new chief executive officer on 13 June 2025. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":780980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9872],"tags":[22403,22402,20129,18005,22404,22407,22406,22405,20128],"class_list":["post-822439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-burn","tag-full-throttle","tag-hilton-schlosberg","tag-monster-beverage-corporation","tag-monster-energy","tag-mother","tag-nos","tag-relentless","tag-rodney-sacks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=822439"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":822642,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/822439\/revisions\/822642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/780980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=822439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=822439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=822439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}