Oatly Opens Vegan Soft-Serve Shop To Expand Market Of Vegan Treats

Right in time for summer, Oatly released its newest product, a vegan soft-serve available in a number of U.K. locations including restaurants, food chains and department store Fortnum & Mason in London. To celebrate the launch, Oatly just opened the first vegan soft serve pop-up shop in central Amsterdam, as part of its “Oats on Tour” summer activation. The shop, open for two months long, marks the company’s efforts and ambition to democratize oat-based alternatives and increase consumption occasions for oat-based products.

Oatly launches “Oats on Tour 2023” to bring vegan soft serve across Europe

Oatly has taken an interesting approach with the launch of its first soft serve. Instead of distributing it across its retail partners and making it available for shoppers to purchase from any grocery store, Oatly is first launching this new frozen treat through food service providers only. The only way consumers can first try it is through the out-of-home channel: restaurants, food trucks or coffee shops. Oatly has so far partnered with London-based Fortnum & Mason, The Breakfast Club and Jenki, a matcha bar that will offer a matcha-flavored vegan soft serve.

In addition, Oatly has launched its summer tour to enable brand interaction and trial of the soft serve across main European cities throughout the summer. The brand will be present across festivals (look out for its branded food truck) to offer free soft serve ice-cream and get as many people as possible to try plant-based alternatives rather than traditional dairy treats: “At Oatly, we’re committed to making it as easy as possible for people to incorporate more plant-based food and drinks into their everyday life,” Bryan Carroll, general manager for Oatly in the UK and Ireland, said in a statement. “That means creating products for every occasion where you might typically find dairy.”

The world’s leading oat-drink company has also just opened a soft serve pop-up shop in Amsterdam from July 2nd to August 31st. The shop offers three flavours, vanilla, matcha and coffee, available in a cup or cone for €2.50 excluding toppings. This is not the first in-person retail activation for the brand: last summer, Oatly trucks were driving around New York City, Los Angeles and St. Louis to give out around 16,000 free samples of its frozen dessert bars.

Oatly’s partnership with food service is key to widen plant-based adoption

While it is the brand leader within the plant-based segment of the milk category across multiple markets and enjoys strong brand awareness, Oatly still has to turn a profit. The brand faced net losses of $87.5 million in Q1 and multiple supply chain issues over the past few years, but operational improvements and a recent change in management are expected to help reach a positive EBITDA by the end of 2023. Given the growth of the plant-based milk segment, which is expected to represent a $19.8 billion market globally this year, and the fact that Oatly enjoys strong market share, we can expect the brand to keep pushing its promotional activity and retail distribution. The key focus lies in expanding partnerships with food service providers, which is critical to widen trial and adoption of plant-based alternatives, and grow volumes for the brand.

In addition to its global partnership with Starbucks
SBUX
, Oatly recently signed a range of partnerships to grow visibility and trial. It signed agreements with a diversity of strategic partners including: Swiss Airlines, to provide oat-milk ready-to-drink lattes in flight, Germany’s largest petrol station network Aral, and a sponsorship with Minor League Baseball in the U.S. allowing the brand to sell its ice-cream across 120 stadiums this summer.

Oatly has managed to grow awareness and trial globally thanks to its first-mover advantage, partnerships with coffee shops and singular, memorable brand marketing. This summer activation marks the continuous efforts it takes to solidify its brand equity in the market and highlights a strategy taken by the company for the foreseeable future, as shared by the brand’s founder and former CEO during the first quarter’s financial results: “We plan to increase our investments in exciting demand-generating initiatives to ensure that we maintain our momentum in the marketplace.”