🥛Oatly Launches "No" Sugars Oat Drink & Commercial Strategy For 2023

Oatly's latest launch flies under the radar, but shows a focus on doubling down on its mission and pivoting from things that didn't work.

📖 About us: We are a UK startup that helps people enjoy a healthy plant-based lifestyle while saving money. Ranked in the top App Store charts across Europe, the Plantwise meal-planning app 🔗📲 offers protein-rich recipes that are both tasty and affordable.

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Oatly finally turns to “No” Sugars

If I didn’t tune into Oatly’s Q4 Conference Call (more on this below), I would have missed the recent launch of the “No” Sugars Oat Drink. It seems like the launch flew under the radar, as there was minimal online coverage and Oatly’s current marketing spend is heavily on their “Spam” newsletter.

So, we are probably the first ones to highlight this.

On the carton’s side space, Oatly has written a clever explainer on its “No Sugars” Drink:

This product contains no sugars, which grants us the legal freedom to call it "No Sugars Oat Drink, which we obviously did. But since we strive to be transparent in everything we do, we'd like to call your attention to how oats actually work. When they enter your body, the carbohydrates are broken down into sugars. Easy now, this is completely normal and happens to all food containing natural starch. Added sugar however, is a different story. That's something you should eat less of, unless you're watching a tearjerker on your sofa after breaking up with your girlfriend, boyfriend or whatever friend and are in need of urgent comfort. But wait, does this mean our "ordinary" unflavored oat drinks have added sugar? Not at all. In those, some of the carbs are already broken down into sugars at the factory. With this product you have to do some of the work yourself, but in return you get a less sweet taste. Something we thought you just might enjoy.

Why is this a big deal?

Oatly has suffered a long history of battling the myth around its “added sugars”. Labelling its original oat drink as containing “no added sugars” in ad campaigns, Oatly was challenged by its oat drink competitor, Campbell Soup Co, in 2019 about the claim.

While Oatly does not technically “add sugar” during its production, it does use enzymes to break down the oat starch into simple sugars. This is why we get to enjoy a unique sweetness in the drink. However, FDA guides that all sugars created through controlled hydrolysis should be declared as added sugars on the label. Since then, Oatly has pretty much failed to stop the myth that Oatly is sugar-fuelled and high-GI, with people even comparing the oat drink with a can of Coke. (Oatly’s defense has been: “Our non-flavored oatmilks contain 7g sugar per 8oz serving, which is less than the amount of sugar in cow's milk…the GI of pure maltose can't be assumed to be the same as that of our oatmilk given our oatmilk's fiber, fat and protein content.”

Instead of continuously defending against this criticism with long-winded answers, Oatly has now made a conscious decision to actually make a product that can say legally say 0 sugars. It shows that Oatly is now on the offensive to act on customer feedback, keep launching new products, and capture more market share.

🛒 We found Oatly “No” Sugars Oat Drink in Sainsbury’s for £2.10

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