Plant-based dairy alternatives are facing challenges with sales falling, established brands struggling and some even folding. The high hopes once held for several plant-based dairy alternative categories have been dashed – with one exception: plant-based creamers. US sales of non-dairy creamers grew by 10% in value and 4% in volume in 2023, a year when volume sales of dairy-based creamers decreased by 1%.
To capitalise on this trend, Greece-based dairy alternatives company Violife (owned by Flora Foods) launched a new range of non-dairy creamers in the US at the start of 2025. The Violife brand is well-established in the US, where it was the best-selling brand of plant-based cream cheese in 2024, and can also be found in tens of other markets globally as well as in categories such as hard cheese and butter alternatives.
The new creamers are based on lentil protein, which is also found in the company’s cheddar alternative, and come in three flavours: original, vanilla and caramel. They can be used hot or cold and deliver 2g of fat, 3g of carbohydrates (all from sugar) and 0g of protein per 15ml serving.
Violife’s creamers are in Walmart stores across the US, where they retail at $4.89 (€4.74) per 1 litre pack which is cheaper than plant-based brands like Silk and Califa Farms but a 30% premium to the dairy-free products of market leader Coffeemate (owned by Nestlé).
As a sweetened alternative to milk or cream, coffee creamers have long been a staple in American households. And contrary to what the word ‘creamer’ might imply, many brands – including Coffeemate – are in fact already non-dairy and based on water and vegetable oils.
Violife positions its new creamers as a ‘cleaner’ alternative, saying that the product is “made with wholesome ingredients”. It also flags up that it is carrageenan-free, which Coffeemate is not. Violife does however use canola oil in its product, a seed oil that a small but growing number of Americans take issue with, and online consumer reactions to the launch indicate that this choice of oil might present a purchase barrier for some.
Regardless of how “clean” and “wholesome” brands like Violife claim their products to be, plant-based options typically contain between 8 and 11 ingredients (in the case of Violife, it’s 10) while dairy-based creamers contain 4-5 ingredients.
Seattle-based Darigold highlighted this difference between dairy and non-dairy creamers in early 2024, with the launch of the Belle brand of coffee creamers. Made with half as many ingredients as Violife and Coffeemate, Belle’s uses the tagline “Real tastes better” and marketing messages like “your coffee deserves real cream” and “all the good, none of the bad”.
