Coca-Cola invests $650m to build production facility for Fairlife milk brand

The site will source milk from local dairy co-operatives to produce Fairlife’s beverages.

The Coca-Cola Co. is to plough $650m into its Fairlife milk brand with the construction of a production site in Webster in upstate New York. Building of the facility will begin this year and the site is expected to be fully operational by 2025. The 100-acre facility will be located between Rochester and Niagara, two major US dairy-producing regions.

Fairlife produces a range of ultra-filtered fresh milk drinks including its Core Power protein shakes and Yup flavoured milks.

The business owns two production facilities in the US: one in Coopersville in Michigan and another in Goodyear in Arizona. In 2018, the brand expanded to Canada and it began sourcing raw ingredients from Ontario in 2020.

Fairlife was founded by Mike and Sue McCloskey in 2012 as a partnership with The Coca-Cola Co. and dairy cooperative Select Milk Producers, which was set up in 1994 by the McCloskeys.

At the start of 2020, The Coca-Cola Co. bought out the remaining shares in the venture, increasing its minority stake of 42.5% to 100%.

“Consumer demand for Fairlife products is at an all-time high, and a new production facility will allow us to significantly increase capacity and deliver Fairlife to even more households across the country,” Fairlife CEO Tim Doelman said.

Last year, Fairlife surpassed $1bn in annual retail sales.