Vegan Business Tribe Podcast - Episode 33: What's going on with Oatly?

Why are Oatly upsetting so many of their fans at the moment? Oatly have been one of the leading lights for vegans, almost single-handly exploding a new plant-milk sector into the mainstream and being tipped as the next ‘Beyond Meat’ for investors. But following taking investment from a global investment fund with a checkered history, and after being criticised for taking heavy-handed legal action against small family-run competitors, many of the company’s fans have become increasingly unhappy.

So what’s the truth about what’s been going on at Oatly? How did the company that said (on its packaging!) that “the reckless pursuit of profit should be criminal” end up on the wrong end of so much bad press? How does a company that subverted the dairy industry now have the same people who championed their mission calling for a boycott of their product? And can a company scale up and grow whilst still getting all the ethical decisions right?