Reporter | Zhang Qin
Editor | Yahan Xiang
Swedish oat milk brand Oatly has entered 20 national and regional markets. A news that raised $200 million in July has sparked public speculation that Oatly is about to go public. Zhang Chun, president of Oatly Asia, expects that Asia's total sales will reach nearly 100 million bottles in 2021, and China has become Oatly's most important growth market in the world. The launch of
Beyond Meat artificial meat has given rise to a wave of plant-based meat startups, and oat milk is a key category that cannot be ignored in the emerging plant-based beverage market. In addition to meeting the needs of lactose-improved consumers, oat milk contains lower fat and has higher fiber than milk. This seems to be the first choice for people pursuing a healthy lifestyle today. The success of
Oatly oat milk has more or less inspired Chinese entrepreneurs. Since 2020, domestic start-up oat milk brands have emerged one after another, and financing information has been continuously carried out. This also means that Oatly oat milk has more and more competitors in the Chinese market. Under close combat, Oatly, as a foreign brand, faces localization problems, has become a gap that local oat milk brands are filling.
htmlIn September, "Xiaomai Ouye" received an angel round of financing two months after the product was launched; in October, the plant protein drink brand oatoat received another 10 million Pre-A round of financing five months after its establishment. Oat cereal brand Ozark is expected to generate annual revenue for OATPLUS oat milk of 100 million to 150 million yuan, while Mai Oye is expected to generate revenue of over 100 million yuan next year.From the perspective of price, the local oat milk brand is obviously more cost-effective. The unit price of Oatoat 280ml specification is about 8 yuan, the unit price of Oatoat 250ml is about 5-7 yuan, and the price of Oatly's same specification is about 10 yuan.
China's plant-based beverage market continues to grow with people's healthy dietary needs. According to a report released by Tmall International, China's compound growth rate of plant protein drinks ranks first in all kinds of beverages, with an annual compound growth rate of 24.5% in the ten years from 2007 to 2016, and the industry market size is expected to reach 260 billion yuan in 2020. Sue, founder of
Oatoat, believes that Oatly's outstanding performance in China has provided some market education for other domestic oat milk brands to some extent, and market education is also the biggest problem faced by many oat milk brand entrepreneurs. "What is oat milk?" and "why choose oat milk instead of milk" and other issues. Entrepreneurs are trying every means to tell potential consumers.
In market education, Oatly chose to instill consumers through cafe channels that "oat milk is the best alternative to milk."
In 2018, Oatly first tasted the Chinese market. Thanks to the promotion of fine coffee shop channels and the exposure of brand, Oatly entered more than 2,000 coffee shops in just 5-6 months. Until this year, the world's largest coffee chain brand, Starbucks , also announced its cooperation with Oatly. Now Oatly has entered more than 10,000 coffee shops in mainland China.
Maybe you may not know the origin of Oatly, but you cannot ignore its existence - the gray packaging is displayed on the order counter, and the baristas will also ask you, "Do you want to replace milk with oat milk for 5 yuan more, and the taste is much better." Oatly conducts market education through the cafe channel and instills consumers that "oat milk is the best alternative to milk."
Many local oat milk brands are also entering the cafe channel.
Wang Xin, founder of Mai Ouye, told Interface News that although Oatly has smooth entry into the cafe channel and has a wide coverage, there are still many chain coffee brands that do not have the option of "oat milk to replace milk", and many boutique coffee shops in the form of "couples and wife stores" are also potential partners, and the door to the coffee channel is still open to local oat milk brands. Sue revealed that since its launch in May, more than 2,000 boxes have been sold in the cafe channel, and Oatoat has become an alternative option for many cafes to choose oat milk, relying on relatively low prices.
However, coffee shops are niche channels after all, let alone boutique coffee shops. Oatly oat milk seems to be closely tied to coffee in the Chinese market, but Oatly frequently hits walls in popular channels such as supermarket channels, so online channels have become the main retail base.
Zhang Chun also said that Oatly still has to rely on online when expanding the C-end market. Online channels can enable brands to communicate directly with consumers, and the cost of investment is lower than offline.In addition, domestic oat milk start-up brands are similar to other new consumer brands. They both have Internet genes and are the first to choose to go online for e-commerce, and have invested a lot of resources to do precise content marketing online.
Therefore, regardless of domestic and foreign investment oat milk brands, the gap in supermarkets and convenience store channels has become a must-fight for both sides.
Oatly was the first to enter the Chinese market in early 2018. Zhang Chun said in an interview with the media that Oatly was "no one cared about". On the one hand, the product awareness was low, and on the other hand, the oat milk has not yet been clearly positioned. "Whether our products are placed in the milk area, the beverage area, the breakfast area, or the food area, you don't know which category your true identity belongs to."
"At present, no one has ever had a direct retail oat milk drink." Sue's opinion, some supermarkets and convenience store channels reject foreign oat milk brands on the one hand because the unit price of foreign brands is too high, and on the other hand, some supermarkets and convenience stores have rejected Tetra Pak packaged beverages, which may be related to goods damage.
Wang Xin said that the traditional hypermarket channels in China are now looking for suitable domestic retail oat milk products, and many supermarkets have contacted Xiaomai Ouye. After financing, Xiaomai Ouye will adopt the "human sea tactic" and part of the funds will be used to recruit relevant personnel from offline channels. Among all the oat milk brands in
, Oatoat took the lead in entering retail channels. Oatoat has now entered Chengdu Hongqi convenience store, and will enter the convenience bee and family convenience store channels in Beijing and other regions in October. According to Sue, Oatly is currently more like a product that represents a "trendy lifestyle", while Oatoat is positioned as a mass consumer product, with consumption scenarios and demands more daily.
In the Hongqi chain convenience store in Chengdu, the clerk puts Oatoat in the checkout cabinet and sandwiches and buns adjacent to the store. The clerk can ask the consumer if he wants to try oat milk with breakfast to reach the consumer. However, Sue admitted that Oatoat does not have a say in all retail channels. For example, Convenience Bee is unwilling to cooperate, but she can still make some plug-ins on the product to inform consumers of the drinking scenario of oat milk. Sue's opinion, it is more effective to show consumers directly what drinking scenarios are than popularizing the science of consumers' oatmeal. In 2021, Oatoat's vision in retail channels is to enter convenience store channels in 10 cities across the country. The localization of
taste is also a problem that must be solved by oat milk products.
Currently, all the products sold by Oatly in China are imported. Judging from the Oatly Tmall flagship store, Oatly has the highest sales volume, which is still the "coffee master" oat drink circulating in the cafe channel, and in terms of categories, the product types are far less abundant than those in the European and American markets.
Wang Xin's opinion is that at present, Chinese people prefer delicate and sweet taste, while European and American consumers prefer primitive and rough crumbs. The products that are sold in the European and American markets may not be able to be sold in China. Local brands have more advantages in price, taste and R&D iteration. Oatoat is currently the only oat milk brand that has built its own supply chain. Its short-term goal is to cater to consumers with multiple flavors; while Oatoat adopts the OEM model, and the R&D and procurement brands participate in their own participation, and the filling and production process is handed over to the factory.
Zhang Chun recently revealed to the media that Oatly will introduce more existing European and American products and develop new local products based on the taste of Chinese consumers. In the future, a factory may be built in China. The accurate timetable has not yet been released. In addition, Oatly expects its factory in Singapore to be completed next year, when Oatly’s Singapore factory will be supplied to the Chinese market in large quantities. If Oatly has its own production capacity in China in the future, it may make Oatly oat milk more competitive in both taste and price. The research and development of
product itself is also the issue that Sue is most concerned about in addition to brand education during the entrepreneurial period. There are currently two types of oat milk on the market. One is represented by wheat Ouye, with a process similar to walnut delicacy; the other is represented by Oatly, Oatoat, Ozark and other brands belong to the latter. Such products are prone to problems of dark colors and unstable systems. Sue told Interface News that once additives and emulsifiers are added, the above problems no longer exist, which is contrary to the main health concept of oat milk, so the enzymatic decomposition technology of oats is very high.
But the technical threshold has not really appeared yet.Wang Xin said that there is currently no quality standard in the domestic oat milk industry. Milk and soy milk are unified by the national standard, indicating protein content, etc., while the current oat milk industry standards are relatively lacking. In the future, Mai Ouye may take the lead in establishing an industry association to formulate industry standards and remove defective products after a certain scale.
Although various domestic oat milk brands benchmark their brand vision with plant milk companies with full product lines, the founders all admit that the current situation of the domestic oat milk market is only "starting to take shape".
Wang Xin's view, Yuanqi Forest spent three years to popularize the concept of "sugar-free sparkling water" and only ushered in an explosive period in 2020, which shows that brands and categories need time to settle. Sue said that there is currently no plan to expand the plant milk category other than oat milk, and make oat-centric products first.
"Whether Oatly made 200 million in China last year or 800 million this year, the market is still too early. It is necessary to explore more markets in second- and third-tier cities to promote this category," she said.
