Coca-Cola To Build a $650 Million Plant for Fairlife Milks

May 10, 2023

Webster, N.Y., just outside Rochester, chosen as its “preferred location”; groundbreaking later this year.

Coca-Cola Co has chosen Webster, N.Y., just outside Rochester, as its “preferred location” for a new Fairlife production facility as part of the brand’s continued expansion in the Northeast market. Coke expects the investment there to total $650 million.

The new facility will sit on a 100-acre site and will source from local dairy cooperatives. Groundbreaking and construction of the new facility are expected to begin in the fourth quarter of this year. The facility is anticipated to be operational beginning in Q4 2025.

“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,” said Fairlife CEO Tim Doelman.

The dairy industry is New York’s largest agricultural sector.

Fairlife launched in 2012 as an “ultra-filtered milk,” concentrating the protein and other nutrients and removing the milkfat. Coca-Cola has been a strategic partner since Fairlife’s launch and acquired the entire company in 2020. Coca-Cola claims the subsidiary exceeds $1 billion in annual retail sales and now also offers Core Power protein shakes and Fairlife Nutrition Plan meal replacement shakes.

About the Author

Dave Fusaro | Editor in Chief

Dave Fusaro has served as editor in chief of Food Processing magazine since 2003. Dave has 30 years experience in food & beverage industry journalism and has won several national ASBPE writing awards for his Food Processing stories. Dave has been interviewed on CNN, quoted in national newspapers and he authored a 200-page market research report on the milk industry. Formerly an award-winning newspaper reporter who specialized in business writing, he holds a BA in journalism from Marquette University. Prior to joining Food Processing, Dave was Editor-In-Chief of Dairy Foods and was Managing Editor of Prepared Foods.