This is part of a new day-in-the-life series at Food Dive of Q&A’s with executives in the beverage industry. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Toby David is used to holding a vital position on a team.
The Parkland, Florida resident spent two years as a pitcher for the Florida Marlins. Today, he is an executive vice president at Celsius Holdings, a beverages, nutritional functional foods and dietary supplements maker.
David leads the CPG’s day-to-day investor relations and works with the heads of the various departments, as well as with the CEO and CFO. Celsius CEO John Fieldly has referred to David as his right-hand man.
When David started at Boca Raton, Florida-basd Celsius roughly 11 years ago doing contract sales work, the company was helmed by his father, Gerry David. The elder David who was brought on at the end of 2011 as CEO to turn the then-flailing company around. He left the company in 2017. It was Fieldly, who was then CFO, who urged for the full-time hiring of the young David.
Prior to his time at Celsius, David spent about three years as a co-host of Tampa, Florida, sports radio show, “The King David Show,” with former Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Shaun King. Before that, he hosted “The Toby David Show” on Sports Talk radio show in Tampa.He also had several sales jobs, including selling commercial insurance for Brown & Brown.
FOOD DIVE: Before we get into your daily routine, Celsius has seen explosive growth since the distribution agreement with PepsiCo commenced in October. (The company reached around $385 million in sales in Q3, up 104% YOY). What was it like working at Celsius 11 years ago?
TOBY DAVID: We were a company that was just trying to survive. I think when I got there, maybe we did $5 million domestically that year. I had a sales background. When I came, I did 10-99 work. I was the low man on the totem pole, just grinding out a sales job. I was working out of Tampa, where I lived at the time. So when I started at Celsius, they had me covering a lot of the key accounts and key district distribution partners. We had a sales team of about five nationwide. At our first national sales conference in 2013 I think we might have had eight to 10 people in the room and that included the CEO, CFO and head of operations. At our recent national sales meeting with our marketing team there we had close to 400 folks. That was really, really cool to see it come full circle.
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So when I joined, I was calling on Amazon, Publix and Polar Distribution up in the Northeast. It was tough because we were coming out of essentially a really dark period of the company where prior to my dad coming along, there was zero marketing. The company was gonna go bankrupt. A lot of retailers and distributors were unhappy with Celsius because we had no finances, we weren’t supporting them, we were leaving them with product in their distribution hubs, and probably weren’t returning calls before the new team coming on. You’d call on accounts and they’d be giving you the finger, like telling you, “Celsius will never be in this account.” There are some major accounts that we’re in today — major national or regional accounts — that said they would never take Celsius again.
FOOD DIVE: Your dad left Celsius in 2017, and you overlapped with him at the company.
DAVID: I have a very strong relationship with my father. But I wasn’t one of the key decision-makers back then. It wasn’t until John became the CEO that I became more involved with conversations around strategy and innovation and things like that. That being said, I did have input because we had such a small team when my father was there. We were growing at like 40% to 50% per year, and we made a pretty critical decision to change the packaging. The old packaging was not ideal, and we transitioned to the packaging you’re familiar with today, which I think was probably the single biggest thing we’ve ever done because I believe the cans, the packaging, sell themselves. It’s our silent salesman in the cooler. My father was the one who pulled the trigger on that. I had input.
FOOD DIVE: What are your thoughts on Bang Energy? Do you think the brand will have a comeback now that it’s part of Monster Beverage?
DAVID: I’ve always thought Bang is a solid brand. I think it’s unfortunate what happened to them, but we’ll see. The distribution strengths of Coke are very impressive. Monster’s obviously a great company. It’ll be interesting to see how things unfold. They’re gonna have a lot of brands now on that truck, in particular, with Monster, Reign and Bang. But those three are all competing for the same space.
FOOD DIVE: What time do you generally wake up?
DAVID: 6 a.m.
FOOD DIVE: Is that with an alarm or do you just pop up?
DAVID: I have the innate ability to wake up on my own, but I do set the alarm just in case.
FOOD DIVE: What’s your morning routine?
DAVID: It depends. I’m trying to work out out again. So if I’m working out I get up at about probably 5:15, versus 6, and I’ll hit the gym. If I do that, I’ll knock out some cardio in the morning. And that’s what I’m aspiring to do, to “Live Fit” [the company motto] as our brand stands for. After the gym, I eat breakfast., I’ll usually eat some eggs and just have some sort of carbs. I like Mush overnight oats. Sometimes I intermittent fast and then I might not eat until lunch.
FOOD DIVE: There must be a lot of pressure to be healthy at Celsius. Are there expectations around how you look, act and live?
DAVID: We’re a very laid-back, comfortable environment at Celsius. You don’t see people walking around in their skin-tight outfits necessarily flaunting their muscular builds. I think it’s nice to aspire to, but Celsius isn’t just a fitness brand. The “Live Fit” [motto] is more of an aspirational call-out. It doesn’t mean you have to necessarily go to the gym six times a week. Maybe it’s just cutting out sugar. Maybe it’s just trying to get you through your long day. If you’re a mom who’s picking up her kids who’s just exhausted at 3 p.m. and needs a pick-me-up. It’s just more of an aspirational thing, very similar to how Lululemon was synonymous with yoga. And, you see a lot of people wearing Lululemon that I can tell don’t do yoga.
FOOD DIVE: What’s your morning beverage?
DAVID: I am a coffee snob. I like to do my own pour-over coffee, especially when I’m eating breakfast. I order fresh beans from Klatch. If I’m in a rush, I’ll grab a Celsius.
FOOD DIVE: What’s your afternoon, pick-me-up beverage?
DAVID: A Celsius. That’s a no-brainer. And that’s usually my second one. I’m usually hitting one by mid-morning.
FOOD DIVE: What’s your favorite adult beverage?
DAVID: Premium tequila and red wine.
FOOD DIVE: What drinks are in your fridge at home?
DAVID: I have a lot of water in the fridge — filtered water that I just put in the fridge in containers. We’re a Pepsi household these days. So we have Bubly. And Celsius.
FOOD DIVE: What’s your indulgence?
DAVID: I love desserts. I have a sweet tooth. I don’t do it very often, but I really like a nice dessert at a restaurant. But I mean, I’ll slam a KitKat bar and some Peanut M&Ms.
FOOD DIVE: What are three adjectives your family would use to describe you?
DAVID: Funny, outgoing, caring.
FOOD DIVE: And what about your colleagues?
DAVID: Funny, outgoing, not caring [laughs]. I don’t know how that would work in the written segment if that’d be funny or not to have that in.
FOOD DIVE: What are your hobbies?
DAVID: I don’t know if eating is a hobby, but that could be a hobby for me. I like going out to restaurants. I enjoy fishing. I’m terrible at fishing but I enjoy the banter and being with other people, maybe enjoying a cold beverage — it could be a Celsius or it could have something else in it.
FOOD DIVE: No baseball?
DAVID: My arm is so damaged from my pitching days. I was a left-handed pitcher. If I pick up something in the house and I toss it across the room, like the next day, my arm is sore, so it’s pretty pathetic. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I could probably still carve up some people if I got on a mound.
FOOD DIVE: What’s your evening routine?
DAVID: I usually take it easy. When I get home, I take the dogs for a walk, make dinner, relax. My wife and I like to watch one of our two favorite shows while we eat, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” or “Seinfeld.” Sometimes I’ll lift weights when I get home.
FOOD DIVE: What time do you generally go to bed?
DAVID: Probably around 11.
FOOD DIVE: What keeps you up at night?
DAVID: Man, John [Fieldly] has a much better answer than I do on this one because he rattles off like 300 things in 60 seconds. I sleep very well, but I am neurotic about our business.
FOOD DIVE: Now for a quick lightning round. Light roast or dark roast?
DAVID: I’m a light to medium roast.
FOOD DIVE: Hot or iced tea?
DAVID: I don’t really drink tea.
FOOD DIVE: Diet or regular soda?
DAVID: Diet.
FOOD DIVE: Cow or plant-based milk?
DAVID: I like that whole milk. I want as much fat from the cow as possible.
FOOD DIVE: Chocolate bar or chocolate milk?
DAVID: I haven’t had chocolate milk since I was about eight years old. I’m gonna go with chocolate bar although a Yoo-hoo is pretty phenomenal.
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