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C Story / Yi Ping

LEADING THE NEW

GENERATION

O nly a decade ago, asking for dairy alternatives

when ordering coffee was a way to inform the
barista that you are lactose intolerant. No one
had imagined taking an oat flat white as part
of the morning routine could one day become a staple of a
lifestyle, which is accompanied by the rise of the plant-based
dairy industry. The global demand is driving the dairy al-
ternative market to an estimated value of US$25.2 billion
in 2021 with a double digits growth rate from now to 2030,
according to Precedence Research. In the UK market alone,
Mintel published that over a third of the population was on
plant-based milk by the end of 2021, and the percentage
was especially high for those under the age of 45. From
2020 onwards, oat has overtaken almond, which used to be
one of the two dominating dairy alternative choices, in
Britain. Behind the scene stands the now infamous Swedish
oat drink maker, Oatly.

Oatly Who?

Oatly is the world’s original and largest oat drink
company. Born from hardcore scientific research by Lund
University in Sweden in 1990s, repositioned from prod-
uct-oriented to brand-focused in 2012, listed on NASDAQ
in 2021, Oatly took each step steadily and seriously.
Today, Oatly is an international corporation operating
in over 20 countries around the world, and its product
portfolio includes alternatives to milks, ice cream, yogurt,
cooking creams, and spreads. Despite the ongoing impact
of the pandemic, Oatly had a record year in 2021. Accord-
ing to Oatly’s financial report, their annual revenue in 2021
was US$643.2 million, achieving a 52.6% increase compared
to US$421.4 million in the previous year.

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