Swedish Oat pioneers Oatly have announced the launch of three oat-based ice creams which will be available in Tesco stores in the UK. The trio consists of Chocolate Fudge, Hazelnut Swirl and Salted Caramel, and will be on sale at the end of this month.
Oatly is headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, with additional offices in New York, London, Berlin, Helsinki, Hong Kong and Shanghai. The brand already sells seven varieties of ice cream in the US, and this May also launched into mainland China. This will be its first entry into the UK ice cream market. According to The Grocer, the brand’s sales increased 89% to £18m last year and expects sales to grow to £35m by the end of this year.
Speaking to vegconomist in an interview this August, Oatly CEO Toni Petersson discussed the rise of veganism in the UK: “One thing is for sure, both the production and the consumption of plant-based products are on the rise. For example, more than 540,000 people in the UK are now vegans, which is triple what that number was a decade ago. Since over half of those UK vegans are between the ages of 15 and 34, it looks like the meat-and-dairy-free trend is going to continue.”
