Wednesday, 03 March 2021 11:30

Oat milk sells

Written by Milking It

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OPINION: Fake milk works for some. Fashionable Swedish alt-milk brand Oatly is seeking a US stock market listing that could value the business at as much as NZ$13 billion.

Malmö-based Oatly is riding high as global demand for plant-based milk alternatives soars. The flotation follows last summer's sale of a minority stake to a starry group of investors that included US private equity firm Blackstone, Oprah Winfrey and Jay-Z. The deal valued the company at US$2bn.

Oatly has enjoyed stratospheric growth thanks to the combination of guerrilla marketing and good timing, as more people embrace a vegan or vegetarian diet. Its sales nearly doubled to US$200m in 2019 and were predicted to do the same in 2020.

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