Milking a Trend
/The dairy case has gotten bigger in the past few years, but the real estate isn’t taken up by more gallon jugs. Plant-based dairy alternatives, like almond beverage, have hit the mainstream and are gaining in popularity. From lower calorie counts in unsweetened varieties to lactose-free label claims, more people are picking up alternative “milks” on their weekly shopping trips.
As consumers continue to purchase dairy alternatives, the dairy industry is dedicated to bridging the gap between real milk and plant-based alternatives.
The Live Real Farms brand started as a smoothie line, and recently entered the fluid milk category with a product the market has never seen before. Meet Live Real Farms Dairy Plus Milk Blends. A purposeful blend of 50% real milk and 50% plant-based beverage.
“This product line was built to be disruptive in the market,” says Eric Loper, general manager of Live Real Farms, a Dairy Farmers of America (DFA)-owned brand, which launched Dairy Plus Milk Blends as a dual effort with Dairy Management Inc. (DMI).
While a product that combines dairy milk with its top competitor seems taboo, innovations like Dairy Plus is needed to find more ways into consumers’ fridges and increase consumption of fluid milk. Even if that means playing in a space that’s never been pioneered before.
“We are aiming to capture those who are considering migrating from fluid milk to plant-based beverages and to invite those consumers who have already made the move and are missing the nutritional benefits fluid milk once provided them,” Eric says. “The greatest concern we hear from these consumers is missing the protein and calcium from fluid milk. Dairy Plus Milk Blends offers a great tasting, balanced nutrition option for them to consider.”
“The goal of this product isn’t to take away from fluid milk. We are targeting the duel consumer that is purchasing both dairy milk and a plant-based alternative, and giving them an option that can fit their whole family.”
With a goal to innovate beyond the jug and attract today’s consumer, the brand’s product line has four flavors of dairy milk blended with almond beverage — original, unsweetened vanilla, vanilla and chocolate — and one flavor — original — blended with oat beverage.
“Almond was pretty easy as it’s the largest portion of the plant universe at about 70% market share,” Eric says. “For the secondary plant-based option, oat is really on trend as one of the fastest growing alternatives.”
Beyond leveraging popular blends and similar label claims like lactose-free, Dairy Plus Milk Blends brings the nutritional value of real dairy to the table. With five grams of protein per serving, a cup of Dairy Plus has five times the protein as traditional almond beverages.
“We’re a consumer-first brand with the foundation of always needing to set up our innovation and activities to support the dairy farmers who own the Cooperative (DFA),” says Eric. And that foundation is part of every half-gallon carton. The milk that goes into each Dairy Plus flavor is from local DFA family farms and distributed from DFA-owned Kemps’ Farmington, Minn., plant.
“I am fascinated by the innovative steps agriculture as a whole has taken to make our food new and exciting,” says DFA family farm-owner Shelly Groesnick. “But also keep up with the growing demands of younger generations who crave adventure, convenience and nutrition.
“Dairy Plus Milk Blends seems to be a product that can fit that bill and it contains 50% milk — bonus for us in the dairy industry,” Shelly says. Dairy Plus Milk Blends just wrapped up its test market of Minnesota and is expanding throughout the Midwest through the end of 2019 in known retailers like Roundy’s, HyVee and Target — to name a few.
“We are performing above our expectation,” Eric says. “The chocolate-flavored Dairy Plus Almond, by surprise, is our most popular flavor, and we look forward to increasing those sales, distribution and eventually, the product line.”
Come 2020, you will also be able to pick up a half gallon in Texas grocers like HEB and United.
While traditional fluid milk is still the main star of the show, Dairy Plus Milk Blends brings a new look to the stage with the nutrition and goodness of real dairy.