Don't have a cow, man: Coke debuts Fairlife 'Milka-Cola' in the US

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/feb/03/coca-cola-releases-fairlife-milk

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Coca-Cola has launched its own brand of milk, which it claims will make it “rain money” for the world’s biggest drinks company.

The new Fairlife milk will cost more than twice as much as regular milk, but the company reckons consumers will be prepared to shell out more as it will contain 50% more protein and half the sugar of normal milk.

The milk went on sale on Tuesday in selected US supermarkets, priced at $4.59 for a 52-ounce bottle compared to the national average of $2.18 for a half-gallon (64 ounces) of milk. The milk also comes in chocolate flavour.

Steve Jones, a former Coke executive who is now chief executive of the company’s Fairlife joint venture with dairy farmers, said all major US retailers – including Walmart, Target, Kroger and Safeway – would sell the milk. It will be distributed by Coke’s Minute Maid team.

Sandy Douglas, Coke’s global chief customer officer, let slip last year that the company was planning a massive investment in the new “premiumized” milk which he hoped would prove so profitable it would “rain money” for the firm.

“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. But like Simply [Coke’s premium fruit juice line], when you do it well, it rains money later,” he told an investment conference.

Jones said Coke’s new milk, which has already been branded “Milka-Cola” on Twitter, would help reverse the decline in milk consumption by offering a superior product that he claims would taste nicer. He claimed the milk would be “better for cows, better for people and better for the planet”.

Jones dismissed claims that the new drink amounted to the “Frankensteining of milk”. “[This is about] leaving all the calcium and protein intact, just giving us a [end result of] higher level of protein and less sugars,” he said on a conference call with journalists, during which the company declined to answer any questions from the Guardian.

Comedian Stephen Colbert has already joked about the product, which he described as “extra expensive science milk”. “It’s like they got Frankenstein to lactate,” he added.

Early adverts for the milk in the test markets of Minneapolis and Denver featured women wearing nothing but milk splashes in the shape of dresses with taglines including “Better Milk Looks Good On You.” Jones defended the adverts, which have been criticised for being sexist, and described the media campaign as “disruptive”.

Coca-Cola will roll out a new nationwide marketing campaign around the end of March or early April. Jones said the company was planning to “crank up the awareness level very, very quickly”. The company does not yet have plans to sell the milk in the UK or elsewhere in Europe.