In 2011, total US beverage milk sales were around 6 billion gallons – the lowest level since 1984, and less than half their level from the early 1980s.
In an interview in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Vivien Godfrey, CEO of the Milk Processor Education Programme – known for the ‘Got Milk?’ and milk mustache advertising campaigns, said: “We have known there’s been a continuous decline in per-capita milk consumption for many years, going back even further than 1984.
“Shifting consumer habits and a flood of new beverages in the marketplace, including sports drinks and bottled teas, have taken a toll on beverage milk sales.”
Tom Gallagher, CEO of Dairy Management, added: “If we have 55 million kids going to school each and every day, and we don’t present them with a product they like and comes in a handy container, then we have lost them for a lifetime.
If we don’t see fundamental changes in the milk business, and I don’t mean incremental changes, then milk is going to become an irrelevant beverage at some point.”
According to Gallagher, the industry hasn’t done what successful brands should do to grow. “The first thing we have to look at is ourselves rather than blame our competition,” he said. “People are still eating yogurts, cream cheeses and other products…but if you walk through the grocery store there’s shelf after shelf of our competition. And we should be there, too.”
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel/USDA
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