Washington: Coca-Cola is planning to release its own brand of milk nationwide in late December, and believes its low sugar version will ‘rain money’.
 The product is called Fairlife and it will sell for twice the price of regular milk when it hits store shelves nationally in December, Coca-Cola’s North American chief, Sandy Douglas said at Morgan Stanley’s Global Consumer Conference last week .The milk doesn’t contain lactose and it has 50% more protein and calcium than regular milk, as well as 30% less sugar. “It’s basically the premiumisation of milk,” Douglas said.
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 explained. “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.
Mike Saint John, president of Coca-Cola North America’s Minute Maid business unit, said that protein is the fastest-growing segment of the beverage category. Coca-Cola’s investment comes at a tough time for the milk industry. Fluid milk sales have been declining for the last four decades.
Douglas added that they are going to be investing in the milk business for a while to build the brand so it won’t rain money in the early couple of years, but once it is done well, it rains money later.
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