Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Monster Beverage Corporation Third Quarter 2012 Financial Results Call. (Operator Instructions). As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's conference, Mr. Rodney Sacks. You may begin, sir.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for attending this call. I'm Rodney Sacks. Hilton Schlosberg, our Vice Chairman and President is with me today as is Tom Kelly, our Senior Vice President of Finance. Before we begin, I would like to remind listeners that certain statements made during this call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 as amended and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as amended, and which are based on currently available information regarding the expectations of management with respect to revenues, profitability, future business, future events, financial performance and trends. 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 call. Please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our most recent annual report on Form 10-K filed on February 29, 2012, and our most recent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, including the sections contained therein entitled, Risk Factors and Forward-looking Statements for a discussion 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. An explanation of the non-GAAP measure of gross sales and certain expenditures, which may be mentioned during the course of this call, is provided in the notes designated with asterisks in the condensed consolidated statements of income and other information attached to the earnings release dated August 8, 2012. A copy of this information is also available on our website, at www.monsterbevcorp.com, in the Financial Information section.…

Ladies and gentlemen, (operator instructions). Our first question comes from Judy Hong, with Goldman Sachs.

So just in terms of your sales trends. So Rodney, you’ve cited some of the headwinds that you faced in the third quarter, the realignment by CCR in Canada and the Nitro sales being impacted. Could you quantify how much those were a drag in terms of your top line growth in the third quarter?

We – at this point I think we haven’t broken those out. Just trying to find something for you. I think the extra strength generally both in the North America were down about $4 million and works about $1.7 million. Just over – so perhaps $6 million for those two and the impact on sales in Canada – trying to find that figure for you Judy. I think was somewhere in the region of about $12 million.

We also spoke about the impact of the currency, which was also about $12 million in the quarter.

Right. I guess the better question is if I sort of look at the Nielsen trends and then just kind of back in and just look at the third quarter. It looks like U.S. was up by 13%, international up kind of 24% and the U.S. trends if I adjust for some of these factors do you think the 18%, 19% trends that you are seeing in Nielsen is pretty much representative of kind of what’s going on in the underlying level in terms of the U.S. sales trends.

I can’t speak – the Nielsen numbers attract sales going up from retail outlets to consumers. So this is a time actually I just don’t have, we don’t have an analysis on what that time line gives and how it affects us in different channels. What we are saying is that basically gross sales in the U.S. were up at about – North America was up at about 14% and we’ve sort of – we can only give you obviously our sales numbers. They are choppy from month-to-month depending on ordering patterns and they vary for a number of factors. And so – but obviously you are just got to try and marry those as best you can, the same way as we do with the Nielsen numbers.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Bill Chappell with Sun Trust. William Chappell – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey: Hi, good afternoon. Can you talk a little bit more about the gross margin you hit in the quarter and just anything you’ve done in terms of finding the distributor or finding I guess local manufacturing for Japan and maybe Korea to help that out?

We are working towards the -- challenge in Japan and Korea is finding the right size Cans for those markets and plants that are able to produce our type of products and we are working towards that at the moment. We’ve launched in Japan in a Sleek can a 55 malt sleek Can and there isn’t – we haven’t been able to find a Sleek can available in Japan. So we’ve been working with Can companies to have them manufacture more to actually be able to supply us with a Sleek Can because the alternatives will go to – which will go to something like a 400 but it was a very stubby Can and we just didn’t feel that was right for the brand. Getting the right product to be used in the right Cans in those two countries has been a challenge but we are actively working on doing so because we obviously we appreciate that it will remove the shipping damages and risks inherent in shipping as well as the shipping cost. And with the market -- but obviously what happens is when you start a market to make the investments and we’ll require some capital investments from us to do so as well with the Can companies and to some of the packing companies in Japan. But until we saw the sales velocities and the viability of packing locally, it just didn’t make sense to have those costs incurred upfront and then try and launch and then work, found out later whether your product was or wasn’t viable and it’s velocity. Based on the velocity we see -- it’s been very positive but the problem is there’s been higher costs or higher damages with that higher velocity. But it has accelerated our plan to go to local production and we are working on it. We also just had some price increases in the U.K. from our packer and we had some price variances and some damages there again. We had some losses. There were a number of changes that took place in some countries for regulatory reasons and we ended up with some inventory excesses which we are obviously trying to work through to sell elsewhere. But we think we will be able to work through that as it will normalize more going forward as we continue to establish the brand and the company internationally. William Chappell – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey: And just a follow up on the October sales…

I just want to point out again. In talking about Japan and Korea, the modulates were quite substantially affected by these losses, the cost of shipping. With the result was that the business achieved, they had very low margins. Going forward we believe we will be able to obviously improve on those margins both by getting better at exporting and shipping Cans and also through local production and obviously increase sales. So those gross margins were very low in those areas because of that. Gross margins were also lower in Europe largely because of the production, and co-parking increased production losses as well. William Chappell – SunTrust Robinson Humphrey: Thanks for the color and just on the October sales I know one month doesn’t make a quarter but that’s all for I think 31% growth in October of last year. Is that sign that some of the issues are behind you or just a timing of shipment. How should we look at that October number?

I think it’s a timing issue, they ship when they orders, we ship when products are ordered, whenever we can and it just falls where it falls. So going forward we’ve obviously – we are encouraged by that factor. We did see a little bit of a fall off towards the end of the quarter. Again, it was what is was and we’ve seen it pick up both – we deal with it as it comes.

Thank you. Our next question comes from Mark Astrachan, with Stifel, Nicolaus. Mark S. Astrachan - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co: Hi, guys. I guess one follow up to the last question. So monthly volatility has certainly increased from a sales standpoint. If you go to April and May it was up in the lower 30 if you had in June deceleration, July was up 25% August, September then worse in October back up. I realize when you get the orders and when you ship the products that you can’t fully control but is there something that you’ve thought about or is there some way that we can sort of rationalize how the selling and sell through sort of work here. So there’s a bit of an explanation for the increased volatility because obviously the underlying sales per the scanner date are good but they ship way too much volatility here month-to-month. I guess any color there. And then the second question -- so you exhausted the share repurchase authorization. How you are thinking about the roughly $600 million in cash on the balance sheet right now?

First, going to the first question Mark. The best measure of the sales which gives you a smoother feel for – you need to follow the Nielsen’s, because the Nielsen’s are obviously a broad sample of different channels and if you look at the Nielsen’s going through from the July Nielsen’s, it’s pretty steady. Monster four weeks for the end of July was 20.2% up, in the convenience channels was 18.1%, in August 19.5%, in September and 19% for 20th October. That gives you a pretty smooth channel and that’s all sales are basically going year-on-year, that’s the increase in the channel. Ordering patterns from our customers are what they are. It depends on timing of promotions, timing of orders and so I can’t show any more color on that other than to say that you look at the sales going through and you got to look at – I know that everybody works off and looks at quarters but at the end of the day you also have to look an annual base in which I think gives everybody a fairer and a more balanced view of the direction of the company, the brand, the sales etcetera. Our quarters are just all choppy, that’s the only patterns have come in and that’s how we take it as it comes.

We sell to distributors. You know what I mean.

On the stock repurchase issue. As we’ve stated in the past stock repurchases are determine by our board of directors. The board continues to review many factors affecting the company’s stock plan as well as the strength of the overall market and will at the appropriate time review whether to authorize a further stock repurchase plan. In light of the fact that we have now used up the existing plan. Mark S. Astrachan - Stifel, Nicolaus & Co: Thanks guys.

Our next question comes from Kaumil Gajrawala, with UBS.

Also on the margin question and to make sure I understand it. How much was the actual product damages versus just the additional cost related to shipping product out to Korea and Japan. Were there pallets that needed to get resent and more one-time damages that were…

There were a number of issues that we faced. Products – sometimes the specs are very tight for Japan and they really are much tighter than the U.S. project were perfectly capable in the U.S. We were being inspected and we are being rejected for minor things, the blemishes and scratches and there’s a whole host of things and dense – they have some pressure issues on cap rates and defective cap issues. So were a whole lot of issues there and again just continued to face us in shipping these large distances. And it’s something that is just difficult to ship full Cans under pressure from the U.S. to Japan. We believe that we will be able to get this more under control as we continue to regain more experience in shipping and understanding Japanese requirements. But it got to a point where literally every case had to be disassembled, examined Can-by-Can and then repacked and that’s where the costs became very high, and as a result our margins were very little but we were there, we were pregnant, we were launching and we needed to continue and the result is we’ve been able to establish our brand very strong, very solidly in the Japanese market but it certainly has been very costly for us, for all these different regions, but as we go forward we hope that we will avoid the damages, we hope we will avoid having to continue these very costly labor and meddling inspections to satisfy our Japanese customers and then retailers in Japan for our quality standards which are just very exerting because compared to the standards normally acceptable in the U.S.

Okay. Got it. And then it sounded like from the very beginning of your opening remarks that the slowdown started about half way through the quarter and then obviously there’s bounce back in October. Was there anything specific you was feel was behind that? And then also was it timing related with selling days or anything like that?

We really didn’t see anything specific. We obviously did look and try to understand and there really wasn’t anything specific other than the matters we sort of mentioned and then you’ve seen the pickup in October. We just haven’t seen it and – basically for us it was obviously we initially looked at it and said – looked at directionally but basically once we saw the numbers coming back in October, that obviously gave us a lot more comfort. But basically we think that you go back and you take into account the chemical issue which was an unexpected issue and the currency where it is. I mean the business is doing much better as I indicated, the sales are up and the numbers are up in local currencies, up over 60%. So again, it’s as if the factor -- all these factors at the time just really shaved the top.

Thank you. Our next question comes from John Faucher with JPMorgan John Faucher – JPMorgan : Thank you very much. A couple of questions here. It sounds like with all the extra -- you talked about the improved profitability on the international business. It sounds like with all the extra costs with Japan and everything that Europe might have seen a relatively significant increase in profitability. Is that a fair analysis to make coming out of your comments?

I wouldn’t say significant, I think it had a nice increase in bottom line and they are all continuing to improve the effectiveness in Europe but we are still got a lot of individual countries where we are at the very early stages of developing the brand as a result we continue to divest quite heavily in trade development personnel, South personnel, sampling in order to make sure the product, the companies established in each of these countries. Although the – Europe again is not one country like America, each country has to be dealt with individually, different languages, different sales team, different support in order to get your brand. And even though the countries are small, you really have to support your brand and that becomes costly until you get to a sort of at least a minimum level of sales in that country and then things will start kicking in. Because we’ve got some really good shares in small countries but it’s costly. In countries like Lithuania, and last year we were up to 15% market share but when you look at it in actual case terms its very small. So to support that get the product established there has been expensive but it is starting to kick in on its own. We’ve got very nice shares in certain of the markets like Greece, Bulgaria, some of those smaller markets in the east and then there were others that also sort of we just are still trying to get out of the blocks. So while we are all continuing to see some good change from losses to profits in those areas they will continue to improve. We are also obviously looking at trying to be a little more strict with your marketing spend to support the brand. A lot of the international properties that we started with in order to give the brand international credibility. We are trying to avoid obviously increasing that spend so that we actually end up with a spend per case lower. It is going the right way. It’s happened for the last two years and so now we believe we are going forward. We will be able to start showing better bottom line coming out of Europe. John Faucher – JPMorgan : Great. And that’s great. And then one point of clarification here you talked about the board making a decision on the share repurchase authorization. Is it safe to say that none of the sort of noise going around that you talked about at the beginning of the call impacts your ability to repurchase stock or to authorize another repurchase program?

We don’t believe so. But obviously we need to be advised by our lawyers but we don’t think so. John Faucher – JPMorgan : Okay. Great. Thank you.

Our next question comes from Alec Patterson, with RCM. Alec Patterson – RCM Capital: Hi Rodney. First just on the October numbers I just wanted to be sort of clear, with the launches of the new products you mentioned the Cuba Lima or Lima. Sorry, I forgot the names. Was there any impact from that in those numbers?

I think the loss was very light in the quarter. It was almost missed the quarter. So you had some launch numbers in the October numbers more from the sort of zero ultra then from Cuba Lima. Because that’s been a bit slow at giving out and we are still trying to get some of our distributor network to take Cuba Lima. Zero Ultra has been taken across the whole network. So that has got out net get impact to buy it, but again I am not sure of the amount of brand as you know started to do very well. But it does take time to get these brands out into the market. So it’s not as though day one you press a button you have a fortune of sales. It’s – these things do rollout over a period of months. But I don’t know the actual effect of the sales of Cuba Lima in October. If I can get that figure before the end of the call I’ll give it to you guys but I just don’t have it with me. Alec Patterson – RCM Capital: Okay. Fair enough. And just in terms of the December meeting. Is that still on and also just quickly, should we anticipate any surprises in the Q filing?

The December meeting is going ahead of schedule. I think the 11 December. I wouldn’t think they are any surprises. I think the 10-Q will be very similar to – we’ve gone into the detail pretty extensively of the business in the quarter and the issues. So I don’t think there should be a need. But again I can’t anticipate what you might think is surprising or material, but we don’t think so.

Thank you. I am not showing any further questions at this time. I’d like turn the conference back to our host for closing remarks.

I am probably not going to be able to get the information on Zero Ultra in time for the close – before the close. I apologize. But on behalf of Monster I’d like to thank each of you for your continued interest in the company. We continue to believe in our growth strategy and remain committed to developing and differentiating our brands and to expanding the company at home and abroad. Thank you very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today’s presentation. You may now disconnect and have a wonderful day.