Got milk? Coca-Cola soon will. The beverage giant is preparing to compete in the dairy aisle with Fairlife, a new, premium milk product that will cost double the price of typical milk.
For the extra money, you’ll get a drink that has been through “a proprietary milk filtering process” that will up protein by 50%, decrease sugar by 30%, and be lactose free, according to Coke senior vice president Sandy Douglas, who talked about the product at an investor conference last week. He didn’t say when the product would hit store shelves.
Coke has struggled in recent months in part due to health concerns over the sugar-packed sodas and juices and artificially sweetened diet drinks that comprise a large chunk of the company’s product list. Mexico and parts of the US—per capita the first and third-largest consumers of Coke products, respectively—have enacted soda taxes intended to combat obesity, an epidemic in both nations.
But dairy’s ability to replace lost soda revenue isn’t a sure thing. While alternative products like almond milk and Greek yogurt are booming, traditional dairy has struggled—which makes the “premium” positioning of Fairlife an important part of the pitch.
Image above from Flickr user Mike Mozart under a Creative Commons commercial license. Image was cropped for this article.