Oatly

Oat milk giant Oatly is expanding its foodservice presence in the U.S. through a new partnership with Graduate Hotels slated to begin in January.

Oatly announced it will lay off staff and transition the business to an “asset-light” hybrid production model after reporting a net loss of $107.9 million, with revenue growth falling short of analysts’ expectations, in its Q3 earnings report today.

Swedish oat milk and frozen dessert producer Oatly Group AB reported double-digit revenue growth during the second quarter, but a challenging global market has led the company to decelerate its capital expense plan and focus on meeting existing demand.

Oatly took a broadsheet broadside yesterday, with the Wall Street Journal reporting on the ways that problems around the company’s attempts to scale over the past two years are affecting the faith of the markets. The story came as the stock price for the oat milk pioneer continued their steep descent Monday, bottoming at less than $5 per share, or less than ⅕ of a mid-June high of $29.

Citing recent supply chain challenges, Credit Suisse lowered expectations for the company’s sales performance ahead of the release of its Q3 2021 earnings report next month. The revised coverage has decreased expected 2021 revenue for the Swedish oat milk maker from $694 million to $685 million.

Oatly announced today Q2 revenue of $146.2 million, up 53.3% year-over-year in its first earnings report as a public company. Global foodservice sales accounted for 33.2% of revenue in the quarter, compared to 21.6% in the same period last year.

Citing increasing demand for oatmilk in retail and foodservice, plant-based milk producers Oatly and SunOpta are ramping up production, with both companies announcing plans for new facilities in Texas set to open over the next few years.

Last month, still hot on the hype of its highly publicized May IPO, plant-based milk maker Oatly sustained its first major setback as a publicly traded company when Spruce Point Capital Management released a document claiming that the company had misrepresented its success. What can other companies learn from this about going public?

“Powerful branding, international exposure, and strong Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) credentials” are just three of the qualities making Oatly a major player in the plant-based food and beverage space, according to a new equity research report from Credit Suisse.

Ringing in the company’s first day trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, Oatly CEO Toni Petersson said the decision to go public was “the right thing to do.” Initially priced at $17 per share, at the top of its predicted range, Oatly’s stock opened at roughly $21 per share, up about 24%, as it began trading shortly before noon today.

Oatly is going public at $17 per share, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal, which cited sources familiar with the matter. The company offered 84.4 million shares and the IPO raised $1.43 billion, giving the company a valuation of roughly $10 billion.

In 2020, revenue increased 106.5% year-over-year, outpacing the 72.9% growth from the year prior, with U.S. revenue representing $100 million, according to SEC documents. Citing Nielsen data, the company reported that retail sales in the U.S. grew 182% year-over-year.

As Oatly scales its U.S. operations, Millville, New Jersey-based Innovation Foods announced this month that it is building a new $45 million processing and packaging facility to produce plant-based aseptic and extended shelf life beverages for the Swedish oatmilk maker.

Plant-based dairy alternative products maker Oatly submitted plans for an initial public offering (IPO) to U.S. regulators, the company confirmed today. The announcement follows reports last month that the Sweden-based company was exploring a potential $1 billion IPO. Oatly is reported by Reuters to have hired Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse as underwriters on the offering.