Dairy-free yogurt will become ‘the next Greek’, report claims

Dairy-free yogurt alternatives will become “the next Greek” as consumers continue to seek out something different, according to a market research company.

Packaged Facts said that healthier, more nutritious, uniquely flavoured, indulgent and decadent yogurts will benefit from their respective points of difference, and could forge themselves an important position in the market as it continues to evolve.

“To an even greater degree than Greek yogurt in its pure, plain incarnation,” Packaged Facts said, “dairy-free yogurt chips away at the premise that yogurt is, at heart, a good-for-you product category, any dessert flavours and candy toppings notwithstanding. Worse, non-dairy yogurt takes probiotics and high protein, both hot nutritional trends, and transfers these trump cards to the plant-based product trend’s bag of tricks. With the plant-based trend, many younger and trendier American eaters are switching lanes from ‘leaning more vegetarian’ to ‘leaning more veganish’, and thereby cutting back on or foregoing dairy.”

The category’s growth is reflected in emerging M&A activity; Danone sold the Stonyfield Farms brand to Lactalis for $875 million as part of its acquisition of WhiteWave Foods – itself a leading player in dairy-free products with brands such as Silk, Alpro and So Delicious Dairy-Free.

David Sprinkle, research director for Packaged Facts, said: “Although dairy-free is not the only innovation trend going, yogurt leaders have seen the dairy-free messaging on the wall. Stonyfield Farms, with its dairy-free yogurts, is now under Lactalis. Danone fields Silk (now including dairy-free and soy-free Silk Almondmilk) and So Delicious coconut culture yogurt alternatives.”

Packaged Facts’ predictions on the future of the dairy-free yogurt category can be found in the third edition of its Yogurt Market and Yogurt Innovation report.