Coca-Cola, to grow business, starts selling milk and protein shakes: Report

Coca-Cola has been on a product diversifying effort since over a decade due to its core soda business seeing a decline over its adverse health effects.

One of the biggest moves it made in this direction was launching Fairlife in 2012 as a joint venture with wholesale dairy producer Select Milk Producers, according to a CNN report.

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Coca-Cola then completely acquired the brand in 2020 for $980 million. In 2022, it announced that Fairlife surpassed $1 billion in sales.

Americans remained drawn to Fairlife’s ultra-filtered system which draws out lactose and sugar from the milk, but doubles its protein content. This is despite the US seeing rising food prices and a spending pullback.

Its most popular product however, is the Core Power protein shake brand which doesn’t have a lot of competitors and remains a popular staple at many grocery stores, according to the report.

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Protein shakes are a $6 billion market in the US, according to the report which cited data from Beverage Digest.

Fairlife’s growth has even outpaced Coca-Cola’s other big non-soda acquisition – Costa Coffee, which it bought in 2018.

However, soda still does make for the overwhelming majority of sales for Coca-Cola, while prime competitor Pepsi relies on its Frito-Lay snack brand.

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The popularity of Fairlife is such that TikTok users frequently post themselves drinking Core Power before working out and also making healthier iced coffee using Fairlife’s milk, according to the report.

However, it has faced some challenges. Fairlife and Coca-Cola agreed to a $21 million settlement in a 2022 class-action lawsuit which alleged inhumane treatment of its cows and claimed that consumers were falsely charged a premium since Fairlife promoted well-treated cows.