Oatmeal milk Oatly and WeWork joint concept to open a coffee shop! Oatly speed up to the coffee track!

On December 8, 2021, OATLY O'Malley announced that it had opened a concept coffee shop with WeWork, which was officially opened on December 10.

If you've been in the coffee circle for a long time, you must know that the best combination of milk and coffee has been completely overthrown by OATLY in recent years. Everyone's impression of OATLY should be an emerging online celebrity brand focusing on plant milk products. But in fact, OATLY is based on the findings of Lund University in Sweden in the early 1990s, and it has been more than 60 years.

Sixty years ago, ARNE, a professor at Lund University in Sweden, discovered the phenomenon of lactose intolerance. Until 25 years ago, RICHARD, a student of ARNE and founder of OATLY, successfully converted high-quality plant protein food oats into easy-to-absorb oat milk with unique enzymatic hydrolysis technology, and OATLY oat milk was born.

Eight years ago, OATLY's current CEO:TONI PETERSSON joined, taking the company to a whole new level. TONI has rebranded the lab-born product, making oatmeal milk a mainstream choice from a niche lover. Not only that, the coffee studio reported the successful listing of OATLY in May, which now has a market capitalization of $77 billion.

Of course, due to the rising popularity of plant milk, we can see many rookie oat milk brands in the market. In order to accelerate the global coverage of brand effect, OATLY regards China as one of the three core markets in the world. And on November 18, 2021, OATLY officially opened its first Chinese factory, located in Maanshan City, Anhui Province, China.

After realizing the localization of production, OATLY wants to launch the retail side. David Zhang, president of OATLY Asia, said: "over the past three years, OATLY has focused on catering. Retail will be an important strategy for us in the next three years. " In addition to the start-up oatmeal milk drink, OATLY has also launched many new small packaging products such as cold extract latte and Hot Chocolate Milk.

But OATLY's ambitions extend far beyond retail. You know, China's coffee market is developing rapidly, and the current market size is more than one trillion yuan. OATLY, which takes "coffee companion" as the starting point, naturally will not give up the huge potential market profit of coffee. According to public statistics, as of last year, oatmeal milk OATLY had settled in 10,000 cafes, including Starbucks, the whole family and many other well-known brands.

By rapidly opening up the market from boutique coffee and tea channels, OATLY is undoubtedly opening up a path for the industry from cafes to category education.

As a qualified worker, you should know WeWork! This is an American commercial real estate company founded in 2010, whose main business is to provide flexible shared workspaces for technology start-ups.

The brand officially entered the Chinese market in 2017 and established its first independent entity called WeWork China. The first round of financing of $500 million was completed in 2018, aimed at expanding its business in China. In 2020, 100 co-creation spaces in China were temporarily closed due to the epidemic.

These two brands that attach importance to the Chinese market, one focuses on health products, and the other knows more about the workplace. Together, they are committed to boutique coffee and opened a joint concept store in the community of WeWork Fuhui Mansion. According to official publicity, the cafe will offer three kinds of special coffee: thick milk oatmeal latte, jasmine mandarin duck and Night Hei Black.

Moreover, from 2:00 to 6:00 on the opening day, there will be a limited edition sale around many joint names, including: McLick work small monster joint sweaters, badges, notepads, canvas bags and so on.

However, it is understood that as early as January this year, OATLY launched the OATLY flash coffee shop in the UK, a move to let more people know plant milk.

This concept store can be said to be a test of the Chinese coffee market by OATLY. At present, Oatly's retail distribution in China is very limited, and the brand also sells products online. Oatly proved with forward thinking that the brand is the first choice for oatmeal milk in cafes.

China's coffee market has ushered in a blowout development, coupled with the rise of consumer awareness of health, how to seize this opportunity to expand the scope of publicity has become an urgent task for the brand.

Photo source: OATLY official website