Brand

Prime’s Australian Distributor Collapses Into Administration With $8M in Debt

Published on July 13, 2026

Congo Brands Australia, the Melbourne-based distributor behind Logan Paul and KSI’s Prime drinks, has entered administration, with financial filings showing $7.92 million in debt and just $85,000 in cash on hand.

Alice Fay Ruhe of The Ruhe Group was appointed administrator on July 7, according to records lodged with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. The company’s first creditors meeting is scheduled for July 17, with a related Federal Court hearing set for July 31.

The filing, lodged with ASIC in September last year, shows Congo Brands Australia posted a net loss of $1.42 million for the 2024 financial year. Sales fell to $14.5 million from $31 million the previous year, roughly a 53% decline. Inventory holdings dropped from $28.9 million to $1.7 million over the same period, a reduction that included a $4.57 million write-down of unsold stock.

Prime launched in Australia in 2022 on the back of intense promotion from Paul and KSI, whose combined YouTube subscriber base exceeds 40 million. Demand was strong enough in the brand’s early period that Woolworths canceled a planned meet-and-greet with the pair in Perth over concerns it could not manage the crowd.

That momentum has not held. Prime Energy, one of the brand’s two core products, contains 200 milligrams of caffeine per 335ml can, exceeding the 32mg-per-100ml limit set by Food Standards Australia New Zealand, and carries a warning that it is not suitable for anyone under 18. The caffeine-free Prime Hydration variant carries its own warning against use by children under 15. Several Australian schools banned the drinks from campus in 2023.

The administration follows a wind-up application filed in the Federal Court in June by packaging supplier Orora Group. Wind-up applications of this kind are typically filed by creditors seeking to recover unpaid debts, and the outcome of Friday’s creditors meeting is expected to determine whether the business is restructured, sold, or wound down.

Congo Brands Australia’s ASIC filing lists Congo’s U.S.-based founder, Max Clemons, and Peter Davison as directors of the Australian entity, and states that the local subsidiary depends on its Kentucky-based parent to meet its financial obligations. The filing notes the U.S. parent had given a “commitment to support the company for the foreseeable future” at the time it was lodged.

Prime has faced separate legal challenges internationally, including a 2023 class-action suit in California alleging undisclosed PFAS in some flavors and a 2024 suit from bottler Refresco seeking $67.7 million in damages over an alleged manufacturing agreement breach.