The Coca-Cola Company has said that it will have its new ‘Fairlife’ milk product on store shelves across the United States in December.
Developed by Mike and Sue McCloskey of Fair Oaks Farms, the milk is filtered into five components then recombined in different proportions. Fairlife doesn’t have any lactose, has 50% more protein, 30% more calcium and 30% less sugar than regular milk. It is farmer-certified rBST-free.
The Coca-Cola Company is to be the sole US distributor.
The product was test marketed in Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago. Coke’s senior vice president of North American operations, Sandy Douglas told Morgan Stanley’s Global Consumer Conference last week that the product will sell for twice-the-price of regular milk and is the beginning of a long-term investment in the dairy business for Coca-Cola. He described it as “the premiumisation of milk” comparing it to Coke’s successful ‘Simply’ premium juice line. He said that Americans are interested in products with higher levels of protein and lower sugar.
The milk is made on a sustainable dairy farm with ‘fully sustainable high-care processes with animals’ and ‘has a proprietary milk filtering process,’ he said. “The test markets have been amazing, and we’ve created a joint venture with a bunch of dairy farmers who are innovative leaders in the dairy industry.”
This is the beginning of a long-term investment in the dairy business for Coca-Cola.
This is one of the seven partnerships announced by Dairy Management Incorporated last month which will invest more than $500 million to reinvigorate the fluid milk market.
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