Welcome to the Monster Beverage Corporation Annual Meeting. Our host for today's call is Paul Dechary, Executive Vice President. At this time, all participants will be in a listen-only mode. I will now turn the call over to your host. Mr. Dechary, you may begin, sir.
Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, thank you for joining us today. I'm Paul Dechary, Executive Vice President, Legal of Monster Energy Company. Before we begin, please take note of our cautionary statement posted on the meeting site. The virtual meeting today will include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the U.S. Federal securities laws and are based on currently available information. Management cautions that these statements are based on our current knowledge and expectations and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside the control of the company, that may cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made during this virtual meeting.
Please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022, and our subsequently filed quarterly reports, including the sections contained therein, entitled Risk Factors and Forward-Looking Statements, for discussions on specific risks and uncertainties that may affect our performance. The company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. I will be turning the proceedings over to Mr. Rodney Sacks, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-chief Executive Officer of Monster Beverage Corporation, and Mr. Hilton Schlosberg, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-chief Executive Officer of Monster Beverage Corporation. First, wanted to discuss the format of today's virtual meeting.
We've designed this virtual meeting to provide stockholders with the same rights and opportunities to participate as they normally would have at an in-person meeting. We will conduct the annual meeting portion of the meeting first, during which we will address the six items of business detailed in the company's proxy statement. After the six proposals have been presented, we will conduct a question and answer session specifically relating to the proposals. Following the formal portion of the meeting, the company will provide a general business update that includes a question and answer session. The meeting agenda and the rules of conduct are available on the meeting's website. We ask that you review, view these documents, and we appreciate your cooperation.
Stockholders attending the virtual meeting can vote their shares online through the closing of the polls by logging into the meeting website as a stockholder and clicking the Vote Here button on the screen. If you have previously voted by proxy and do not wish to change your vote, your vote will be cast as you previously instructed and no further action is required. If you have logged into the meeting website, you may submit a question by typing them into the text box on your screen. If asking a question, please include your name and affiliation to the company. To ensure that we receive your questions before the Q&A session is closed, we encourage you to submit your questions early. Please note that we may not be able to answer every question during the meeting due to time constraints. Finally, please note that today's meeting is being recorded.
It is my pleasure to hand the meeting over to Mr. Sacks and Mr. Schlosberg.
Thank you. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Rodney Sacks. I'm the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Monster Beverage Corporation. It's our great pleasure to welcome you to this annual meeting of the stockholders of Monster Beverage Corporation. Also joining Mr. Schlossberg and myself for the virtual meeting today are all of the other directors of the company: Ana Demel, Tiffany Hall, Mark S. Vidergauz, Mark Hall, Gary P. Fayard, Jeanne P. Jackson, James Dinkins, and Steven G. Pizula. Thomas J. Kelly, Chief Financial Officer, and Paul Dechary, Executive Vice President, Legal of Monster Energy Company, are on the webcast as well. Mr. Dechary will act as Secretary of this meeting. Also on this webcast are representatives of Deloitte & Touche LLP and Ernst & Young LLP, the company's independent registered public accounting firms for 2022 and 2023, respectively.
Although both firms have indicated that they do not wish to make a statement, their representatives are available to respond to appropriate questions from stockholders of the company during the question and answer period. The purpose of this meeting is to consider and act upon proposals to, 1, elect 10 directors to the Board of Directors of the company. 2, ratify the appointment of Ernst & Young LLP as independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the year ending December 31, 2023. 3, approve on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers. 4, approve on a non-binding advisory basis, the frequency with which stockholders will approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers.
5, approve the amendment and restatement of the amended and restated certificate of incorporation of the company, as amended, to increase the number of authorized shares of the common stock, par value $0.005 per share, from 1,250,000,000 shares to 5,000,000,000 shares. 6, approve the amendment and restatement of the Certificate of Incorporation to reflect new Delaware law provisions regarding officer exculpation. Mr. Dechary will now report on the proof of the due calling of this meeting.
Thank you. I have a copy of the Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders dated April 28, 2023, setting forth the time, place, and purpose of this meeting. I also have an affidavit of an employee of Broadridge Financial Solutions showing that on April 28, 2023, Broadridge caused to be mailed a copy of the Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials to each stockholder of record of the company on the record date. In addition, I have a complete list compiled by the American Stock Transfer & Trust Company, the company's transfer agent, of the stockholders of the company as of the close of business on the record date, April 24, 2023. This list is available for inspection during this meeting by any stockholder on the virtual meeting website.
Thank you. A copy of the notice of annual meeting of stockholders and Affidavit of Mailing will be placed with the records of the company as part of the minutes of the meeting. The list of stockholders will also be filed with the records of the company. Thomas Kelly has been appointed as Inspector of Election with respect to the conduct of the voting at this meeting. He has executed his oath of office and given the oath to me. The oath will be filed with the minutes of the meeting. Mr. Kelly has informed me that a quorum is present. I declare the meeting duly and lawfully convened. The polls are therefore now open. We will close the polls after the proposals have been presented. The next item on the meeting's agenda is Proposal 1: The Election of Directors.
The nominees are set forth in the proxy statement, are Hilton H. Schlosberg, Mark J. Hall, Ana Demel, James L. Dinkins, Gary P. Fayard, Tiffany M. Hall, Jeanne P. Jackson, Steven G. Pizula, Mark S. Vidergauz, and me. Certain information regarding the nominees can be found in the proxy statement. The board of directors of the company recommends a vote for each of the nominees. The second item is Proposal 2: the ratification of the selection of Ernst & Young LLP as independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023. The board of directors recommends a vote for ratification of the selection of Ernst & Young LLP as independent registered public accounting firm of the company for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023.
The third item is Proposal 3: approval on a non-binding advisory basis of the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The board of directors recommends a vote for, on a non-binding advisory basis, the compensation of the company's named executive officers described in the compensation discussion and analysis, the summary compensation table, and the related compensation tables and narrative in the proxy statement for the company's 2023 annual meeting of stockholders. The fourth item is Proposal 4: approval on a non-binding advisory basis, the frequency with which stockholders will approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers. The board of directors recommends that stockholders vote 1 year on a non-binding advisory basis with respect to how frequently a non-binding stockholder vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers should occur.
The fifth item is Proposal 5: approval of the amendment and restatement of the amended and restated certificate of incorporation of the company, as amended to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock, par value at $0.005 per share from 1,250,000,000 shares to 5,000,000,000 shares. The board recommends a vote for the amendment and restatement of the amended and restated certificate of incorporation of the company as amended. The sixth and final item is Proposal 6: approval of the amendment and restatement of the certificate of incorporation to reflect new Delaware law provisions regarding officer exculpation. The board of directors recommends a vote for the amendment and restatement of the amended and restated certificate of incorporation of the company as amended.
We will now turn to the question and answer session for questions related to the six proposals we just reviewed. I remind you that there will be an opportunity for general questions not related to the six proposals after the formal portion of the meeting has concluded. If any stockholder has a question on the six proposals for me, or a member of the Board, or the company's independent registered public accounting firm, we would be happy to try and answer them at this time. Mr. Dechary, can you please present the first question?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We have one question related to one proposal number six. The first question is from Jimmy Elrod. On behalf of the Carpenters Pension Fund, my question relates to the issue of officer personal liability for fiduciary violations. Delaware corporate law now permits corporations to amend their certificate of incorporation to limit the personal liability of senior corporate officers for monetary damages in connection with an officer's breach of their fiduciary duty of care. The permitted amendment covers most senior officers. Has the board discussed the officer exculpation issue, and if so, is there consideration of advancing a certificate of amendment? Thank you.
You just read it. I will defer to you. Perhaps if you could take that question, Mr. Dechary.
Certainly. The company has addressed this issue. Proposal 6 was voted on today and amends the Certificate of Incorporation to address officer exculpation.
Thank you. At this time, I don't see any further questions pertaining to the six proxy proposals. That will conclude the question and answer session for the items you have been asked to vote on at today's meeting. For those stockholders who have not yet voted, we are preparing to close the polls, we'll wait only a few more moments to cast your vote using the Vote Here button on the virtual meeting website. If you have previously voted, you don't need to take any further action. Right now, we'll briefly pause to allow for any final votes. Now that everyone has had the opportunity to vote, I declare the polls closed. I've received the preliminary voting results from the Inspectors of Election. Please note the following vote is preliminary.
If you voted today, your vote will be tallied and included in our final vote results, which will be reported on a Form 8-K within 4 business days. The preliminary voting results show that with respect to Proposal 1, the election of directors, all of the director nominees have been duly elected to serve until the 2024 Annual Meeting. With respect to Proposal 2, the selection of Ernst & Young LLP as our independent registered public accounting firm for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2023, has been ratified by the affirmative vote of approximately 99% of the votes cast. With respect to Proposal 3, a non-binding advisory vote on the compensation of the company's named executive officers, has been approved on an advisory basis by the affirmative vote of approximately 95% of the votes cast.
With respect to Proposal 4, a non-binding advisory vote on the frequency with which stockholders will approve the compensation of the company's named executive officers, has been approved on an advisory basis by the affirmative vote of approximately 100% of the votes cast. With respect to Proposal 5, the amendment and restatement of the amended and restated Certificate of Incorporation of the company, as amended, to increase the number of authorized shares of common stock from 1,250,000,000 shares to 5,000,000,000 shares, has been approved by the affirmative vote of approximately 65% of the outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote thereon.
With respect to Proposal 6, the amendment and restatement of the amended and restated Certificate of Incorporation of the company, as amended, to reflect new Delaware law provisions regarding officer exculpation, has been approved by the affirmative vote of approximately 77% of the outstanding shares of common stock entitled to vote thereon. I hereby request that the preliminary report of the Inspector of Election be filed with the minutes of this meeting. We have now concluded those matters specified in the notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders. There being no further business to come before the meeting, I will entertain a motion to adjourn. Is there such a motion? I move that the meeting be adjourned. The formal portion of the meeting is now adjourned.
We will now proceed to the business discussion portion of the meeting, which will be brief, as we just had our earnings call last month, and we'll be releasing earnings in early August. After our brief remarks, Hilton and I will answer some questions. As indicated during our conference call on May 4, 2023, our pricing actions, which were implemented to partially mitigate inflationary pressures, have not significantly impacted consumer demand. We remain well-positioned with sufficient inventories of the majority of our portfolio. However, certain SKUs remain challenging, leading to increased costs in certain instances. We are pleased that our international business continues to expand. However, the margins we are achieving internationally are below those domestically. We are continuing to increase the number of flavors being supplied from our manufacturing facility in Ireland to certain of our international markets.
We are expanding its capability to facilitate the processing and supply of juice bases for our Juice Monster products. In the United States, Monster continues to drive category growth with its robust innovation launches. In many cases, we have gained additional retail shelf space with our new flavors and packages that were launched earlier this year. We are pleased with the early performance of our new Monster and Reign innovation, including Monster Energy Zero Sugar, Monster Ultra Strawberry Dreams, and Reign Tropical Storm. In particular, Monster Energy Zero Sugar and Monster Ultra Strawberry Dreams have been positively received by consumers and already rank amongst our top 10 SKUs, according to Nielsen. We also launched Reign Storm in 12-ounce cans, available in four flavors, which targets new consumers as interest and demand within the wellness energy category continues to grow.
Initial sales of Reign Storm have been positive, and the market share of our total Reign brand family has increased. We also launched Monster Energy Green, Monster Zero Ultra, Juice Monster Mango Loco, and Monster Rehab Tea + Lemonade in 19.2-ounce cans as an incremental price package option for our consumers. We will launch NOS Zero Sugar, our zero sugar representation of our NOS original flavor profile, across all retail channels in a 16-ounce can later this year. We are continuing to expand production and distribution of The Beast Unleashed, and are making progress to achieve our goal of being national by the end of the year. We are also pleased to announce that we will be launching Nasty Beast, a line of hard iced teas, to further expand our flavored malt beverage offerings in the latter half of 2023.
Nasty Beast will also contain 6% alcohol by volume and will be available in four flavors. According to the Nielsen reports, for the 13 weeks through June 10, 2023, for all outlets combined, namely convenience, grocery, drug, mass merchandisers, sales in dollars in the energy drink category, including energy shots, increased by 12.9% versus the same period a year ago. Sales of the company's energy brands, including Reign, were up 10.7% in the 13-week period. Sales of Monster were up 9.4%, sales of Reign were up 34.9%, sales of NOS increased 10%, and sales of Full Throttle increased 8.9%. Over the latest 13-week period, the growth in sales of the company's energy brands exceeded the growth in sales of Red Bull.
According to Nielsen, for the 4 weeks ended June 10, 2023, sales in dollars in the energy drink category in the convenience and gas channel, including energy shots in dollars, increased 15.5% over the same period the previous year. Sales of the company's energy brands, which include Reign, increased 15.2% in the 4-week period in the convenience and gas channel. Sales of Monster increased by 13.1% over the same period versus the previous year. Reign sales increased 49.3%, NOS was up 11.3%, and Full Throttle was up 24.6%. Sales of Monster, as well as sales of the company's energy brands over the latest 4 weeks in convenience, have exceeded the growth in sales of Red Bull.
According to Nielsen, for the four weeks ended June 10, 2023, the company's market share of the energy drink category in the convenience and gas channel, including energy shots in $, decreased from 36.3%- 36.2%. Monster share decreased from 30.6% a year ago to 29.9%. Reign share increased 0.7 share points to 3%. NOS share decreased from 2.6% -2 .5%. Full Throttle share remained at 0.7%. Red Bull share decreased 1.1 points to 35.1%.
According to Nielsen, for the 4 weeks ended June 10, 2023, sales in dollars of the coffee plus energy drink category, which includes our Java Monster line in the convenience and gas channel, decreased 0.2% over the same period the previous year. Sales of Java Monster, including Java Monster 300, Java Monster Nitro Cold Brew, were 3.6% higher in the same period versus the previous year. According to Nielsen, in all measured channels in Canada for the 12 weeks ended May 20, 2023, the energy drink category increased 14.7% in dollars. Sales of the company's energy drink brands increased 21.8% versus a year ago. The market share of the company's energy drink brands was 43.3%, up 2.7 points.
Monster sales increased 24.6%, and its market share was 38.7% in the same period, up 3.2 points. In the 12 weeks ending May 20, 2023, the Monster's brand market share has surpassed Red Bull and is now the leading energy brand in Canada. According to Nielsen, for all outlets combined in Mexico, the energy drink category increased 11.8% for the month of May 2023. Monster sales increased 18.4%. Monster's market share in value increased 1.6 points to 29.3% against the comparable period the previous year. Sales of Predator increased 63.2%, and its market share increased 1.7 share points to 5.5%. Monster is the leading energy brand in Mexico.
The Nielsen statistics for Mexico and certain other countries cover a single month, which is a short period that may often be materially influenced, positively and/or negatively, by promotions and other activities. We reiterate that sales over a short period should not necessarily be imputed to or regarded as indicative of sales for a full quarter or any future period. As we have discussed during our first quarter conference call, we launched a number of Monster, Reign, and strategic brand innovations in Europe, Middle East, and Africa in the first quarter of 2023, including the major rollout of Monster Energy Lewis Hamilton 44 Zero Sugar, which is now in 27 markets. We will be launching various Monster strategic brands and Predator SKUs in additional markets in EMEA throughout the rest of 2023.
According to Nielsen, in the 13-week period to the end of May 2023, Monster's retail market share in value, as compared to the same period the previous year, grew 16.0%-16.4% in Belgium, from 29.5% to 31% in Great Britain, from 31.2%- 35.1% in Norway, from 38.7%- 41.4% in Spain, and from 15.7%- 16.9% in Sweden. Monster's retail market share in value, as compared to the same period the previous year, declined from 33.3%- 32.4% in France, and from 7.4%- 5.2% in the Netherlands.
According to Nielsen, in the 13-week period ending May 7, 2023, Monster's retail market share in value, as compared to the same period the previous year, grew from 15.5%- 16.7% in Germany. According to Nielsen, in the 13-week period to the end of April 2023, Monster's retail market share in value, as compared to the same period the previous year, grew from 17.9%- 21.2% in the Czech Republic, from 27.6%- 27.9% in Denmark, from 27.6%- 29.6% in Italy, and from 28%- 29.5% in the Republic of Ireland. Monster's retail market share in value, as compared to the same period the previous year, declined from 38.%- 37.5% in Greece.
from 21.4%- 18.9% in Poland, and from 19.9%- 19% in South Africa. According to Nielsen, in the 13-week period to the end of April 2023, Predator's retail market share in value, as compared to the same period the previous year, grew from 25.6%- 31.6% in Kenya, and from 14.8%- 19.7% in Nigeria. According to Nielsen, for the month of May 2023 compared to May 2022, Monster's market share increased in Argentina from 49.4%- 55.6%, in Brazil from 41.9%- 45.1%, and in Chile from 37.9%- 40%. The Monster Energy brand is the leading energy brand in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.
Monster Energy remains the leading energy brand in both Japan and South Korea, with market shares respectively at 58.1% in May, according to INTAGE for the convenience channel in Japan, and 59.1% in May, according to Nielsen in South Korea. We are pleased with the performance of our expansion of the Monster Ultra line in Asia. Ultra Paradise recently launched in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore, and Ultra Sunrise recently launched in South Korea. We are seeing steady and sustainable growth for our Monster brand in China. In India, we anticipate completion of the rollout of Predator cans nationally by the end of August. The Predator brand is incremental to growing Monster. We are also planning to launch our Predator brand in several additional APAC countries in the second half of the year.
According to IRI in Australia, Monster's market share in value for the month ending May 28, 2023, increased from 14.2% - 15.8% as compared to the same period the previous year. Mother's market share in value decreased from 10.5%- 10.4% during the same period. Company energy brands increased from a 24.8% share to a 26.2% share during the same period. According to IRI in New Zealand, Monster's market share in value for the four weeks ended May 28, 2023, increased from 13.4%- 14.6% as compared to the same period the previous year.
Liv+ market share in value decreased from 6.8%- 5.8%, and Mother's market share in value decreased from 5.5%- 5.3%. The company's energy brands market share remained at 25.7% during the same period. I would now like to open the floor to any questions from shareholders. Mr. Dechary, could you please present the first question?
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will read the first question verbatim. The first question is from Andrea Teixeira at J.P. Morgan. Promotion/cost environment. Across CPG, with commodity costs rolling over and consumers under more pressure, there is increasing commentary around increasing promotional activity. Given some of MNST's key exposures remain deflationary, like aluminum and transportation, and ongoing market share pressure, does management plan to increase promotional pressure to drive volumes? Is management seeing promotional activity pick up from competitors?
Okay, thanks, Paul. I think I'll take that one. I mean, it is correct that our key exposures, or certain of our key exposures, like aluminum and transportation, remain deflationary. You know, it's interesting that aluminum and, as I look at it, today, the LME settled below $1, just below $1, which is when it first hit that some weeks ago, we were really excited that we were back into more normal territory, although the Midwest Premium still is hovering around $0.24, $0.25 . It is correct that some of these exposures, and transportation is one of them, remain deflationary. However, I've mentioned this on previous calls, certain of our raw material and packaging costs still remain under pressure.
As was mentioned earlier in the business discussion, we have sufficient inventories of the majority of our products to service our customers, but certain SKUs are still being shipped outside of our hub, it's leading to increased costs for certain of our product lines. In regard to increasing promotional activity, please take into account that the 2nd and the 3rd quarters traditionally have greater promo allowances than, for example, the 1st and 4th quarters. As a policy, we've stepped up our promotional allowances, but the good news is that our price increases have in fact stuck. In the U.S., we are investing in incremental promotions on our multi-packs in the summer across our chain business in order to ensure that we have increased and enhanced display activity.
Of course, as everyone would expect on this call, we are investing behind Reign Storm. As you know, Reign Storm was launched at retail at the end of March, and we're encouraged with early results. As regards to competitors, it's been up and down, and we haven't seen any extreme movement one way or the other in promotional activity. Thanks, Paul.
Thank you. Our next question is a two-part question from Broadwood Capital. The U.S. energy drink market seems to have been fragmenting a bit over the last few years, with multiple small brands taking a little bit of market share from Monster and Red Bull. Do you think that this fragmentation is being driven more by innovation and consumer preferences, or more by retailers' choices? Do you think that it will continue?
Thanks, Paul. I'll have a stab at this. I think that fragmentation is being driven more by innovation and consumer preferences rather than retailers' choices as such. I think the consumer, we're all seeing a trend in consumers, that they're looking for. They have an appetite for new products, for new flavors, for things that are different, and they want them at a quicker pace more than they historically ever have. I think that is helping to fuel additional brands with additional flavors, additional twists on different flavors. You're seeing some products now with flavors based off of candy and other different, you know, cues. And that, I think, is opening up the category. What we think it is doing, it's bringing new consumers into the category.
I think you've got to, you know, when you're looking at market share, you can't just look at it in isolation. You've got to appreciate that the market itself is growing. In the latest 13 weeks, we've said the numbers, you know, mid-teens, and that's certainly not shabby. That's been going on for many years, and it's continuing to grow at a really healthy rate. While we are getting more, you know, competitors, we are getting different companies and brands positioning themselves a little bit differently. You initially had sort of the performance energy tweak. Now you've got a wellness and clean energy sort of twist to it. That is continuing to draw broader consumers and consumers that weren't in the category before.
We're seeing a healthy, continuing growth trend in energy drinks and in this category. Again, it's not so much the share, it's a question of what are we able to continue to drive in dollars. That is where we continue to believe and be comfortable that the category and our brands are all healthy. You're seeing growth in Reign and we're pretty particularly excited by, you know, Reign Storm, which has recently launched as well.
That's great. The second part of that question is: What is the path to gaining more significant foothold in China? What about in India?
I'll talk about that. You know, I think we have made no illusion of the fact that China has been a difficult market for us. It's taken us some years, I think, to learn the ropes, and we now feel that we really are in a better position, the best position we ever have been in China. If you look at the last few months, you know, we've seen steady growth in China. You know, we believe that this steady growth has come from a number of factors. Firstly, the refocus on our key SKUs, which is Green, Ultra, and Mango. Secondly, there's been a consistent activation of our marketing focused on action, sports, and street basketball to bring and capture that young consumer that we've always looked for.
Thirdly, there's been a total re-engagement of our bottlers, and we've really been ensuring that we have better execution in the tier one cities and in the key channels. Fourthly, you know, I believe that there's been a strengthening of our in-store visibility programs, and we're gaining a lot of support from key retailers. Secondly, in China, what we're doing is. Or next, I should say, not second. Next, we are continuing to accelerate the growth, and gaining more significant market share, by adding Predator in 2024 to complement the Monster brand and have a SKU position in that affordable energy market, which is so important to us and to the, you know, to the business as the business has evolved in China.
Now, turning to India for 1 minute. Historically, the market in India has been very small. And it's now been accelerating and certainly has done so over the last 2 years. And what we're seeing in India is the market has really evolved into 3 segments. The first segment is a segment above 100 rupees, which is where the Monster brand falls. And in the Monster brand, we're leveraging our sponsorships on motorsports, MMA, and gaming. And that's been a, you know, good experience. The Monster brand is doing well in India.
In the segment between 50 rupees and 100 rupees, this is a segment where we have Predator in a can, which we launched in the first half of 2022, and that's doing nicely. The other and more exciting part is the segment below 50 rupees, which is the affordable category. We're launching Predator in a PET format in the second half of this year to address that very important large part of the affordable category in India. As the category in India evolves within these 3 segments, we really are very well positioned to capture growth in India.
Thank you. Our next question is from Filippo Falorni at Citi Research. Can you talk about the early results from The Beast Unleashed versus your original expectations? More broadly, in alcohol beverages, should we expect further launches in the second half of 2023?
Okay. I think that early results from The Beast Unleashed have, in fact, met our expectations, and we are very encouraged by early results. As we have indicated previously, we initially had a staged launch in initially, I think, 6 states. It's been expanded. We've gone into our sort of second level, and we're now sort of almost through that and we're going further. At the current time, we probably are cover about 40% of the U.S. in states, but probably about 2/3 of the population or potential consumers. Some of them are just getting out in the last few weeks, so it's not, it's not as though we've had, you know, that 60% coverage for the period, so for the full second period so far. Results have been very encouraging.
We are looking at our repeats, which are healthy. We are also looking at our sales per point, as you know, as you normally expand distribution, you normally see an initial focus market with a high sales per point, and then it does drop off as you continue to build out your distribution. We had an initial slight drop-off, and then what we're seeing now is that those rates have increased and are steady and increasing. We're very comfortable with the repeats and the sales and sales per point that we are seeing with the Beast brand. We do as I indicated earlier in this call, we have plans to continue to innovate and expand in the alcohol division.
We had a decision to make on whether we launched our iced tea, which we thought there is a growing market in that iced tea, hard iced tea section, under a separate brand and have its own identity. We ultimately opted for extending and playing off the Beast brand to give us a stronger shelf presence on shelf. Our plan is to launch the hard iced tea extension sub-brand under the Nasty Beast name. We think that will give us a much better billboard effect, and that is the fastest growing section of the flavored malt beverage category at the moment.
That is where all the growth is going, is coming from, as opposed to, the seltzers which are clearly at the moment, retreating and going down, and you're getting some growth in the cocktail type of alcohol, spirit-based section as well, but that's much smaller. We think this is good. We're going to continue to innovate. Again, I think that the iced tea is slated for the end of the year. We're looking for different package sizes. On the Beast, we're going to probably increase our package size to do a 23.5, 24 ounce can in the Beast for the single-serve convenience category.
We will be launching the iced tea product in that same size, in a 23, 24 ounce can, and we will have a variety pack in 12-ounce flavors as well. Further than that, we do have some additional innovation, but we're, you know, that's way for the future. That's 2024, and we'll come to that in due course. At the moment, what we are planning to do is towards the end of the year, is to expand this line, as I've just described. We're pretty excited about that. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next question is from Mark Astrachan at Stifel. Assuming you have not repurchased shares quarter to date, is there anything legally preventing you from doing so? If not, please discuss your views on ROI for strategic investments that are potentially under consideration.
Yeah, I'll take that one. It is correct that we've not repurchased any shares quarter to date. There really is nothing legally preventing us from doing so. As we've said on previous quarterly update calls, the intention and the board's intention is to return cash to shareholders through share buybacks. Nothing on this front has changed. As always, the board continues to evaluate the most effective method for returning cash to shareholders via share buybacks. In addition to our normal operating cash usage with mainly coolers, plant equipment. You know, all that is modest in relation to the cash flow generated by the company.
There are a number of important strategic projects that we have underway in the company, including the construction of a new facility for our flavor house in San Fernando, California, as well as adding a juice processing facility in the facility in Irel and. Of course, we are opening our first beverage facility in Northern California, and that will happen in August. We also are pursuing expanding a VAF, and this is something we really have to do in South America and Asia Pacific to avoid the long lead times and the customs and other regulations which sometimes hold our ingredients back in customs in various countries.
Obviously, you know, we do have sufficient cash resources to meet these obligations. On balance, yes, we. Nothing has changed. The board continues to evaluate the most effective method of returning cash to shareholders through share buybacks. Thanks, Paul.
Thank you. With that, we have time for one more question. The last question comes to us from Michael Lavery at Piper Sandler. I appreciate it is still fairly early, what is the latest on Reign Storm's launch? Any plans for an international launch?
All right. Reign Storm, as you will appreciate, really launched late in March, we've gone and, you know, got distribution. We're probably up to the high thirties now, just under 40% distribution. In many cases it's just getting onto shelves. In some cases, we've had listings in some of the sort of Kroger chains but from June. We've just been able to also secure some cold shelf space in Walmart, that's also from June. We, you know, we've missed the cycle, so it'll take some time to get some warm shelf distribution in Walmart. What we are seeing, which is really important for us, is the sustainable sales on a per point basis.
As we look at on a weekly basis of sales across all measured channels and convenience, we are seeing sales as stable and in fact, trending upwards, which is good. As with all new brands, it takes time. You've got to seed the brand. Its positioning is very different to Reign, so we're going to focus on marketing and putting marketing support behind Reign Storm that is different to how we've positioned and are marketing Reign as a performance brand, our initial 16 ounce. We will continue to position Reign as a performance brand and have marketing, you know, true to that brand. Certainly, Reign Storm is gonna have its own platform and its own focus in marketing, in execution, et cetera. It has a different consumer.
It's in a 12-ounce can, as you know, and it will, you know, continue to grow. We think there is growth clearly dividing, into... The division between performance and wellness or clean energy now, whereas before they were just alternatives to traditional energy. There is that division that is emerging. This product will compete more directly with those alternative brands out there that are focused on that sector, you know, and we will continue to grow. At the present time, we actually are quite excited about it. International, we have launched Reign in a few international markets. We're sort of assessing the, you know, the acceptance of a performance category, but we think there may well be, some more acceptance in some selected markets for what...
For this wellness, general wellness category, which is also distinguished by being focused on a 12-ounce can, whereas in other markets, the original Reign proposition was competing with Monster directly, more directly in the same 16-ounce or overseas in the same 500 ml can. This does give us incremental opportunities. We are looking at some selected markets. Again, we're just launching the brand here, so it's very early days, but there is clearly some markets we are gonna be focused on, and we will be able to introduce the product quite easily and quickly to follow in the market, some of the markets that Reign has been introduced in.
I think that's all we can really talk about at this stage on the international, because it is very premature, but we are all very excited by it, and we think there is, so a lot of runway and good opportunity for us, in Reign Storm. Thank you.
Thank you. With that, I'll turn it back to Rodney for his closing remarks.
Thanks, Paul. On behalf of Monster, I'd like to thank everyone for attending our virtual annual meeting and business update, and for your continued interest in the company. We continue to believe in the company and our growth strategy and remain committed to continuing to innovate, develop, and differentiate our brands, and expanding the company both at home and abroad, and in particular, expanding distribution of our energy products through the Coca-Cola bottling system internationally. We believe that we are well-positioned in the beverage industry and continue to be optimistic about our total portfolio of beverages. Thank you very much for your attendance.
The meeting is.