Beverage Nielsen winners include Celsius brands, Vita Coco, and Anheuser-Busch’s Michelob Ulta

Energy drinks shined bright again in the release of Nielsen data that covers a wide array of retail channels, including food, drug, mass merchandisers (such as Target (TGT) and Walmart (WMT)), dollar stores (DG) (DLTR), warehouse clubs (COST) (BJ), convenience stores, liquor stores, and e-commerce platforms like Amazon (AMZN).

Total energy drink sales were up 15.3% for a four-week period that ended on June 14. Sugar-free energy drink sales soared 30%.

“Across our Beverages coverage universe, on a relative basis, the sequential data appear more favorable for CELH given acceleration in brand Celsius and Alani Nu” highlighted J.P. Morgan analyst Andrea Teixeira. Celsius (NASDAQ:CELH) recorded a 42.1% year-over-year sales increase for the Nielsen tracking period. The big pop is mostly attributable to the addition of the popular Alani Nu brand to the mix. Celsius’ (NASDAQ:CELH) market share position of 15.9% is its highest ever.

Red Bull energy drink sales rose 16.1% during the tracking period, and Monster Beverage (NASDAQ:MNST) energy drink sales were up 8.6%.

Non-alcoholic beverage sales rose 2.3% as Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) and Vita Coco (NASDAQ:COCO) boosted their market share at the expense of Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP) and PepsiCo (PEP). The streak of Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO) carbonated drink sales outperforming PepsiCo (PEP) carbonated drink sales is now more than one year long.

Alcohol sales were down 3.5% for the four-week period that ended on June 14. The sharpest drop was in the hard seltzer category, with a 9.4% swing lower. Boston Beer’s (SAM) Truly brand saw its sales slide 17.4% during the period. Wine was down 1.6% for the tracking period, and beer sales fell 4.2%. Notably, Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) gained market share in the beer category again due to the relative strength of the Michelob Ulta and Busch brands. Meanwhile, Brown-Forman (BF.A) (BF.B) recorded a 3.0% decline in sales, which was worse than the -0.1% mark for the broad spirits category.