Oatly

Oatly's rebrand: from fringe Swedish carton to black-market demand

Shaan tells Oatly's turnaround story: a 20-year-old Swedish oat-milk maker with ugly packaging hired a new CEO who rebranded it with English-language DTC-style cartons and funny copy. Sales went from $20M to $100M to over $200M, with demand so high baristas pay upcharges on a black market for it.

“So first thing they did is they changed the packaging so it's in English, not in Swedish. And then they made it look like all the DTC brands type of thing. So like nice colors, nice little packaging, funny copy on the packaging, that sort of thing. Oatly starts to sell, like it hits $20 million in sales, and then it hit $100 million in sales. Now it's over $200 million in sales. Literally, they cannot produce enough Oatly for the demand.”