Coke gets coffee chills

Soft drink giant Coca-Cola Amatil has announced big plans to tackle the lucrative WA iced coffee market.

Coca-Cola has invested $32 million in state-of-the-art dairy processing technology at its Richlands, Queensland, facility to produce Barista Bros.

Market leaders Brownes and Lion Dairy and Drinks have the lion's share of the WA iced coffee market, which is worth an estimated $24 million a year.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said Barista Bros was a premium iced coffee flavoured milk brand from Coca-Cola South Pacific.

She said the brand was in response to WA's growing cafe culture.

The flavours include Iced Coffee and Double Strength Iced Coffee.

Coca-Cola's product was initially launched in Queensland in vending machines and stores in June this year and, after a strong response, is to be rolled out in WA at the end of August.

The spokeswoman said the launch of Barista Bros iced coffee was being supported with a multimillion-dollar multi-channel marketing campaign which included TV, outdoor advertising and digital and social media.

"Our communication campaign is based in the home of coffee — South America — where we seek approval from quirky characters who represent the toughest coffee critics," she said.

"It will be the first flavoured milk to be available in vending machines, and this is one of the key focus channels for us. Our distribution in vending machines enables 24/7 availability and means we can offer our product in harder to reach areas.

"The milk in our iced coffee is sourced from our Australian milk supplier and our supplier sources their milk from Australian dairy farmers."