A week after revealing the return of Anchor Cheddar, Arla has set its sights on another dairy category - drinks - with the first in a pipeline of “category shattering” NPD that it hopes will grab £1 in every £5 spent in the sector by 2017.

At present, Arla has a £15.3m share of the £218m dairy drinks market - around 7% [Nielsen MAT 16 March 2013], primarily through Starbucks-branded chilled coffees, which it produces under licence.

However, it predicts the category will grow to £270m by 2017 and is gunning for a £54m share, equating to 20%.

Its first new brand is Wing-Co, a high-protein milk drink aimed at men in their 30s and 40s, which will be marketed as a more satisfying alternative to snacks.

The drink, which contains 40% more protein than average chocolate milk drinks, comes in a retro-style bottle showing a moustachioed flight commander and carries the strapline “shoots down hunger fast”.

Initially available only in chocolate, it rolls out to Tesco, Asda and Morrisons and Nisa on Monday (rsp: £1.40/500g bottle) and will be backed by a £2m push, involving sampling, posters and print ads.

Wing-Co will be joined by Gulp - a new milkshake intended to give Arla a rival to Dairy Crest’s Frijj and Friesland Campina’s Yazoo.

Aimed at kids, it comes in chocolate, strawberry and banana flavours (rsp: 90p/500g bottle), and will be exclusive to Asda for three months from Monday.

Arla had spent £100,000 on R&D, and Gulp and Wing-Co were the first in a pipeline of “category-shattering” NPD for Arla, which planned up to eight launches in dairy drinks by 2017, said Gareth Turner, senior brand manager for dairy drinks at Arla. “We are not in it for the short term this isn’t a flash in the pan,” he added.

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