Speaking at the Morgan Stanley Global Consumer Conference yesterday, Sandy Douglas, president, Coca-Cola North America, revealed plans for the nationwide roll out of Fairlife, available in 2% fat, skim (less than 0.2% fat), and chocolate variations, in late December.
Lactose-free Fairlife, which contains 50% more protein and calcium and 30% less sugar than regular milk, was trialed in Minneapolis, Denver and Chicago.
Now after "amazing" results in the three test markets, the Fairlife brand will be launched nationwide.
Given the "better taste" and premium status of Fairlife, consumers will be charged "twice as much for it as the milk we're used to buying in a jug," Douglas said.
Looking ahead, Coca-Cola hopes Fairlife will emulate the success of its premium orange juice brand, Simply.
"It's basically the premiumization of milk," he said. "Our ambition there is to create the Simply of milk."
“Now to be clear, 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," he said.
"But like Simply, when you do it well it rains money later."
Fairlife is produced by Fair Oaks Farms - a joint venture established in December 2012 by The Coca-Cola Company and Select Milk Producers, the company behind Core Power.
Fair Oaks Farm uses a "proprietary milk filtering process" to separate milk procured from suppliers into its five key components - water, butterfat, protein, vitamins and minerals, and lactose.
These components are then recombined in different proportions to produce lactose-free milk with 50% more protein and calcium and 30% less sugar.