Coca Cola looks to crash coffee culture
Posted on: 2015-04-20 12:00 AM GLOBAL fizzy drink icon Coca-Cola is paying increasing attention to the milk market.
Last year, the US carbonated beverage giant's 29 per cent-owned Australian subsidiary Coca-Cola Amatil (CCA) launched new premium flavoured milk brand Barista Brothers to muscle in on the popular iced coffee market.
In the US the company has also moved into the dairy market with a "premiumised" milk brand Fairlife, which it claims offers double the protein 30pc more calcium and half the sugar of conventional milk.
The designer drink is made by 'ultra-filtering' cows' milk and splitting it into five parts - water, butterfat, protein, vitamins and minerals, and lactose - and recombining them without the lactose.
Although early publicity has included ridicule from commentators describing Fairlife as something from Frankenstein's laboratory, Coca-Cola strongly believes shoppers will pay twice as much for its new whole milk product which has reduced fat, fat-free and chocolate flavoured alternatives.
"I hope it's Coke's next billion-dollar brand," Fairlife's chief executive Steve Jones told US media, where reports have described the new release as looking and having a texture a little thicker than traditional milk, with a slightly richer taste.
US dieticians are sceptical about the reconstructed milk, noting that although Fairlife's nutrition numbers seemed appealing, most Americans already got enough protein in their diet and basic milk's natural benefits were at risk of being undermined by Coca-Cola's "superior nutrition" initiative.
Fairlife's US release began in selected supermarkets last year, extending nationally in 2015, but there are no plans yet to add it to the Australian business offering.
CCA's national launch of its Barista Brothers range, initially in Queensland last June, was promoted as "inspired by the passion of baristas and Australia's growing cafe culture".
It has acknowledged the new Arabica coffee drinks - iced coffee and double strength iced coffee - were a direct response to strong growth in the flavoured milk category in Australia.
"We are excited to make an impact with our first national foray into the category in Australia," Barista Brothers marketing manager Karen Kresner told last year's launch.
CCA has owned the prominent Melbourne-based Grinders Coffee roasting, distribution and retail business for the past decade.
It also makes a range of milk and fruit juice drink lines under the Goulburn Valley brand, part of its SPC-Ardmona subsidiary also acquired in 2005.
CCA's carbonated drink portfolio includes the various Coca-Cola trademark lines, plus Fanta, Sprite, Kirks, Powerade and Pump, as well as spring water brands Mount Franklin and Deep Spring.
It is a joint venture partner in the Australian Beer Company with the Casella Group and distributes imported spirits including Jim Beam, Canadian Club, and The Famous Grouse.
