‘Big Ideas’ Means Oatly’s Extensive Support for Small Coffee Entrepreneurs

By the time of its US IPO in 2021, brothers Rickard and Bjorn Öste’s Oatly Group AB had already amassed a sizable international fan base over a quarter of a century since its founding in Malmö, Sweden. .

Food scientist Riccardo Oste had invented a now patented method of making liquid oats as a dairy substitute at Lund University. You may have allergies or other health concerns about dairy products. It could be an ethical thing about animal treatment. Or maybe you’re aware that the planet-saving revolution will be “plant-powered,” as Östes did.

Oatly therefore commits to shifting animal consumption to plants to ensure the longevity of our shared world. The company said it promoted the idea that we need to grow what we eat, rather than grow it.

(Oats) Got the milk?

Sure enough, consumption has started to change in the last two decades. That central paradox—growing fodder to feed food—has become unsustainable in more people’s calculations.

Oatly is particularly concerned about the global environmental impact of 270 million dairy cows producing milk for 6 billion dairy consumers, according to the World Wildlife Fund. Greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, improper handling of fertilizers and fertilizers that degrade local water resources, “and unsustainable dairy and forage production are damaging ecological features such as grasslands, wetlands and forests. It could lead to the loss of areas of scientific importance,” said WWF.

According to data from Grandview Research, the global oat milk market was valued at $2.23 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 14.2% from 2020 to 2028.

This market expansion can be attributed to the growing vegan population along with other “health-conscious consumers seeking nutritious plant-based milks.”

In key non-Scandinavian markets in Germany, the UK and Asia, Oatly products are now available in more than 6,000 retail and specialty stores nationwide, including thousands of Starbucks stores.

It’s time for an even bigger expansion. Oatly has raised his $1.4 billion in his 2021 US IPO. Its potential value was estimated at over $10 billion. At some point in the spring of 2021, its market cap reached nearly $17 billion.

sewing oats in north america

Now, for the past two years, Oatly’s has focused on promoting high-quality, gluten-free North American oats that have been processed into liquid oat products that have become popular in the backyards of U.S. consumers. .

Many of its products are in the form of coffee creamers. Coffee was Oatly’s first breakthrough in North America in 2017, says Christa Cain, Witzig, who has been Oatly’s director of coffee channel development since 2019.

In many ways, coffee is key to achieving Oatly’s mission. Kane knows coffee. She started her career in her coffee retail business before joining her Oatly five years ago. Now she leads her partnerships with leading coffee companies across the continent, “to realize Autry’s social and environmental values,” she says.

it’s working. Kane has already seen many stores and chains such as Stumptown He Coffee or Blue He Bottle He use oats he milk rather than milk by default.

“So,” Kane explains. [such as Pittsburgh-based Commonplace Coffee]when you order a cappuccino, you automatically get oat milk instead of milk. People have all kinds of reasons for making that decision, many of them climate reasons. am.

To further strengthen Oatly’s community building and sustainability credentials, Kane co-created and directed the company’s Big Idea Grant for Coffee. BIG is an annual grant program launched in 2021. This is aimed at supporting small, independent businesses in the coffee he community, Kane says. To help them pursue strategies, projects, and innovative ideas, “to share what they have learned along the way so they can build a more sustainable future for the industry and the planet.” are all intended.”

crop cream

Independent cafes are known as ambitious, progressive innovators, Kane says. “They are visionary” — which she says is one of the reasons many people adopted her Oatly early on. Her first BIG grant recipient has worked on pioneering packaging. BIPOC and disability employment and support. Fair pay to farmers. education; neighborhood assistance; nutrition; and other sustainable and circular economic initiatives.

The first-year BIG winners are:

• Three Keys Coffee (Houston, TX). A blueprint for other small businesses in the area, converting to solar power and upcycling rice husks for composting by local farms.
• Build Coffee (Chicago) co-founded Market Box, a free grocery delivery service that includes produce from local farms. This service is delivered to residents of their own communities by neighborhood volunteers.
• 1A Coffee (Wilmington, Virginia) is a “great sustainability tactician,” Kane says. The store has gone completely solar powered and sells electricity to the grid. They closely track air quality and other things that aid their footprint-reducing missions.
• Junior’s Roasted Coffee (Portland, Oregon) strives to make the coffee supply chain more sustainable. This means that fair compensation is paid not only to the farmer, but to everyone else behind the customer’s iced her latte.

The second year of the BIG program will begin in September 2022, and Oatly has increased the total funding for this year’s winners to $400,000. With hundreds of submissions and mentoring from last year’s winners, new grantees are currently onboarding. As long as the idea fit him into one of Oatly’s “pillars of change,” Kane says, the applicant was seriously considered.

The pillar is to think like the company of the future, make system changes and drive the food system shift. “So for us, it’s about turning people into plant-based,” Kane says.

Go Against Grain—With Whole Grains

These pillars, especially the last one, are why Oatly was founded and operates as a “sustainable plant-based manufacturing company.” “Everyone is of equal value, regardless of spiritual beliefs, national origin, race, gender, sexual orientation, or nail polish color,” the company said.

“The reckless pursuit of profit without regard for the well-being of the planet and the people who inhabit it should be considered a crime. I have as much responsibility as I do.”

Kane says BIG perfectly embodies a sustainable path to building that society. Because it’s built around ‘we’.

“The goal is to make our learning free and openly accessible for coffee partners and industry insiders to practice and be inspired in a similar way,” she says. . “One of the review criteria we have for this grant, the External Committee and the Internal Board is… Does this idea have the potential to inspire other communities and businesses to implement similar ideas?

“Because people obviously know their area better than the big companies that have been before. It’s exciting to see how that expands.”

To learn more about more purpose-driven companies like Oatly, check out our Lead with We podcast. hereyou too can create a company that changes consumer behavior and our future.