Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. has the largest-selling soft drink brand around the globe and now it’s “got milk.”
Sandy Douglas, president of Coca-Cola North America, recently said at a Morgan Stanley Global Consumer Conference that Coca-Cola will roll out a no-lactose milk product that will be in stores in late December.
Douglas called Fairlife, the name of the new product, “the premiumization of milk.” According to a transcript of his appearance, the executive said the product tastes better than regular milk and is better for you due to “a proprietary milk filtering process that allows you to increase protein by 50 percent take sugar down by 30 percent and have no lactose.”
But Fairlife won’t be cheap. “[We’ll] charge twice as much for it as the milk we used to buying in a jug,” Douglas said, according to Seeking Alpha transcript of his remarks. A price was not provided,
Coca-Cola has been investing more in non-carbonated beverages such as juices and teas, given a decline in soda sales not only for the company for also for its competitors, especially in North America as health-conscious consumers seek out more nutritious alternatives.
Fairlife is a Coke joint venture with U.S. dairy farmers. Douglas said it will take time for for the product to become as successful as the company’s Simply juice line from Minute Maid.
“[We’re] 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,” Douglas told Morgan Stanley. “But like Simply, when you do it well it rains money later. And we can deliver with our business portfolio before the milk comes on full profit line.”
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