BD has recently tracked the US rollout of Reign, Monster Beverage’s answer to energy challenger Bang. Reign is distributed by the Coca-Cola system. This week, the release of the first full month of retail scanner data for Reign showed better-than expected progress, as detailed in reports by various analysts. Consumer Edge noted that Reign is “coming out of the gate strong.” Guggenheim called the progress a “heavy Reign in April.”

Details. IRI data cited by RBC Capital Markets showed Reign had reached $16 million in sales during the 4 weeks ending April 21. RBC said Reign was 23% the size of Rockstar and 17% the size of Bang. The RBC analysts said they expect Reign to be as big as Bang within the next 12 months. RBC analysts also argued that Bang’s growth has been overstated in scanner data because gas and convenience sales are cannibalizing health store sales, which aren’t tracked. RBC cited separate data from Numerator Insights showing the health channel represents about 10% of Bang sales now, after having represented 27% of sales in late 2018.

Penetration. According to Consumer Edge, IRI data showed Reign had reached 33% ACV (all commodity volume) nationally during the 4-week period and a 1.4% share of the energy/ready-to-drink coffee category. The market coverage was highest in California at 51% and lowest in Maine at 15.5%, according to Consumer Edge. Turning to Bang, Consumer Edge analysts said the product has “room to run” as it moves into the Northeast. In addition, the analysts said, Bang’s portfolio has higher-than-average velocities compared to the energy category and Monster, a fact that will serve Bang well as it increases its in-store penetration.

Monster Results. On Thursday, Monster reported higher-than-expected first-quarter organic revenue of growth of +14%, including +9% growth in the US. Guggenheim analysts said they expected +8% and +3% growth respectively. Reign reached a 2.5% share of the energy category in the important convenience channel, Monster said, citing the most recent week of scanned data. “We are impressed by the early success of the REIGN launch,” Guggenheim’s analysts wrote, “and encouraged that retailer feedback has been positive, according to both management commentary and our own channel checks.”