The siren song — or is that a moo? — of dairy drinks continues to draw America's soft-drink giants deeper into investments in milk-based products. Coca-Cola has today announced an equity investment in a new company that has been formed to market Core Power, a dairy-based recovery brand that the company began distributing a few months ago.

In fact, Coke said, through the newly created Fair Oaks Farms Brands, it plans to help "drive growth and expansion of Core Power and to create an innovative portfolio of brands and products that feature the value-added nutrition of dairy." Fair Oaks Farms and Select Milk Producers, Coke's partners in the new venture, came up with Core Power, and the high protein recover shake brand is run by former Coca-Cola executive Steve Jones.Continue reading...

Under industry-wide assault for selling sugar water, Coca-Cola is looking even harder at new types of alternative "better-for-you" beverage categories. That's why it has agreed to distribute a dairy-based "sports recovery" beverage called Core Power.

The "natural high-protein milkshake" by Fair Oaks Farms Brands is endorsed by triathletes and is part of an exploding category of beverages that are said to boost performance during workouts and muscle recovery afterward. The players range from startups such as Core Power, to chocolate milks that have been enhanced, to new products in PepsiCo's Gatorade lineup that were specifically developed for post-workout recovery.

In a world teeming with ever more obese people, and aging populations in many of the most important geographic markets, does it really make sense to think that there will be enough dedicated athletes and workout warriors to slake up this proliferation of new beverages, including Core Power?Continue reading...

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