The Coca-Cola Company has outlined further investment plans to expand its Fairlife dairy operations in the US, committing $650m to increase production capacity at its Michigan facility.
The investment will fund the installation of two additional production lines at the company’s Fairlife plant in Coopersville. Construction is expected to begin later this year, with the expansion adding approximately 245,000 square feet to the site.
Coca-Cola aims to bring the new lines into commercial operation by 2028, although further details on the project have yet to be disclosed.
The move forms part of a broader strategy to scale up Fairlife production across the US. The company is also preparing to begin operations at a new Fairlife facility in Webster, New York, later this year — an investment first announced in 2023. In addition, Coca-Cola operates an existing Fairlife plant in Goodyear, Arizona.
Fairlife was established in 2012 by Mike and Sue McCloskey in partnership with Coca-Cola and dairy cooperative Select Milk Producers. The McCloskeys originally founded the cooperative in 1994. In early 2020, Coca-Cola acquired full ownership of the Fairlife venture, increasing its stake from 42.5% to 100%.
Speaking at a recent investor event hosted by Citi, Coca-Cola president and CFO John Murphy highlighted the company’s ambition to continue growing its share in the dairy category.
“To have leadership in a category that is growing and that is sustaining relevance to an even broader consumer set is something that we’re very pleased with and it has actually created, as you well know, the capacity challenge,” he said.
“We see the opportunity ahead to be pretty robust. You can never sit on the laurels of what you’ve accomplished to-date but it’s a pretty darn good place to start from.
“As we go forward, I would see the innovation opportunity in this category to be quite strong. I know from my conversations with our team that they are chomping at the bit to have even more capacity to continue to drive an even more relevant portfolio.”