Is oatmeal milk coffee out of date? Coffee shops no longer boost, Oatly net loss of more than 4.4 billion yuan!

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Oatmeal milk brand Oatly, which is popular in the coffee industry, recently reported in its 2022 results that the net loss of shareholders belonging to Oatly's parent company was $392.6 million (RMB 2.7 billion), nearly double the net loss of $212.3 million (RMB 1.46 billion) in the same period last year.

And such data, or 2022 Oatly Asian market (mainly the Chinese market) sales to achieve an increase in the situation. In fact, from 2019 to 2022, Oatly has lost more than $641 million (4.41 billion yuan). With such a loss, one is that the marketing space for oatmeal milk is limited. Oatmeal milk has always been aimed at the B-end market (that is, corporate users), because the C-end market (that is, the consumer market) will be weak. Although there are oat milk products aimed at the C-end market, the price is also relatively high, so the sales volume is far lower than that of the B-end market.

B-end market for brands, although stable, well done can be said to be not worried about food and drink, but once encountered irresistible factors, it can be said to be "one pot end" … For example, the COVID-19 epidemic in recent years has dealt a heavy blow to Oatly, which has always successfully brought the "plant base" to the consumer market in various countries through the form of "coffee + oatmeal milk." Because cafes around the world have been closed for a long time, even after they resume business, they do not dare to use a large amount of oatmeal milk at a cost. After all, there are many outbreaks. Consumers have different ideas about the consumption of coffee and are more inclined to discount real products.

As a result, many cafes no longer have large quantities of oatmeal milk, and their products are made with more conventional milk / other plant milk at a more affordable price. Oatly2022's annual loss is so large in part because Oatly did not "learn the lesson" and partly because sales bet on the Chinese market in 2021 to make Chinese consumers aware of oatmeal milk through Starbucks China. However, the closure management in Shanghai in 2022 directly panicked Oatly CEO and said: "in China, our team is going through a very difficult environment." We have a large part of our business in Shanghai. Among the Chinese retail and catering service stores that OATLY has entered, more than 17000 stores need to be closed in the first quarter of this year due to closure.

At the same time, in the Chinese market, there are not too many people who are lactose intolerant. Most people choose oatmeal milk because of novelty, and a small part of it is because plant milk is "healthy" and "environmentally friendly". But in the retail market, the price of a bottle is not cheap, so when there is a crisis in the B-end market, few consumers in the C-end market will choose Oatly oatmeal milk.

Apart from the fact that sales aimed at the B-end market are not applicable to the C-end market, Oatly's repeated manipulation since losing money has made the coffee industry increasingly annoyed with the brand, and many consumers are disgusted with the way Oatly promotes oatmeal milk. At first, the promotion of oatmeal milk focused on environmental protection-vegetarianism, while promoting through environmental journals that oatmeal milk was greener than milk because it reduced environmental pollution, reduced carbon dioxide emissions caused by cattle breathing and reduced water use. At the same time as a coffee lover to recommend to the coffee shop, so keep walking around the major high-end cafes in the United States, find different baristas to blow water, promote oatmeal milk how healthy, how to protect the environment.

However, the taste and taste of oatmeal milk is more or less simple, and it does not blend well with more seasoning ingredients, so consumers pay less attention to oatmeal milk because of the lack of freshness after a period of time. Coupled with the emergence of the epidemic, Oatly was worried. In order to make the coffee market pay more attention to its own oatmeal milk, in 2022, it tried to register "barista" as a trademark. In September 2022, Oatly submitted the registration of the "Barista" trademark to the New Zealand intellectual property Office, and Bidfood immediately objected. Bidfood said the word "Barista" has been used in various plant milk products in the country for nearly a decade and is a common word that has never been registered as a trademark by a company before.

But Oatly says "Barista" is not a common term, because over the years, people immediately think of their own company's oatmeal milk when they see "Barista", rather than other plant milk / dairy alternatives.

But Oatly says "Barista" is not a common term, because over the years, people immediately think of their own company's oatmeal milk when they see "Barista", rather than other plant milk / dairy alternatives.

In October 2022, Oatly posted an open letter on its website saying that the rule that contestants can only use milk in WBC competitions is out of date. It can be said to be a public challenge to the Fine Coffee Association.

The brand believes that nowadays the coffee products of oatmeal milk in cafes are loved and welcomed by public consumers, and modern consumers have more and more oatmeal milk. As a globally recognized boutique coffee association, SCA's mission, purpose and core values include the term "sustainable".

It even invested in a film in 2021, invited vegetarian actors to play, and made a film called Coffee Wars, which was released on several online platforms on March 7.

The content is that baristas are destitute because they set up coffee shops that insist on using only oatmeal milk and are not understood and recognized by the public. But the protagonist is not reconciled, and then forcibly take oatmeal milk to participate in the barista competition, hoping to prove through the competition that the use of plant milk can also have extraordinary performance.

But this wheel operation also makes a lot of coffee lovers feel disgusted. Whether it is a public challenge, most netizens are talking about it. The new movies are even less watched, one because of fees, and the other because coffee lovers and practitioners who insist on plant milk are unable to attract the public.

After the 2022 results, Oatly's chief executive said that with the lifting of epidemic restrictions, the company was ready to aggressively attack the market again in 2023. At the same time, he also announced his latest strategy for the Asian market, which is to expand distribution, launch new products and improve efficiency. However, nowadays, Asian consumers have a great demand for taste innovation, and monotonous taste and taste can not satisfy consumers' pursuit for a long time. Coupled with the fact that plant milk is really healthy over the years, it is controversial because oatmeal milk needs to be mixed with large amounts of vegetable oil and sugars, both of which are often the root causes of obesity.

This has also led the public to retain an attitude about whether oatmeal milk is healthy and whether it can "replace milk" like oatmeal milk brand promotion. Photo Source: Internet