The Food Biz Episode 1: Oatly Drama

Take a bite out of the latest headlines, trends, and insights within the Food and Beverage Industry with The Food Biz, our new podcast hosted by Kristyn Tarpey and Ryan Nelson!  You can listen on Spotify or in the Apple Podcasts App.  

Short on time?  We’ll fill you in on the first episode!  

Kristyn and Ryan kick off the episode with a discussion about what they ate for breakfast that morning.  Kristyn reveals she had an oat milk latte for breakfast, which leads into a discussion on a recent short seller report on Oatly, a Swedish food company that produces alternatives to dairy products from oats. The report came from Spruce Point Capital Management who has accused Oatly of shady accounting practices and greenwashing.  Kristyn and Ryan dive deep into this report.  Ryan believes that Spruce Point Capital Management makes some valid points in their report and raises the question if Oatly deserves such a high price to earnings ratio. Kristyn notes that the Spruce Point Capital Management is shorting the stock and would benefit from it going down.   

Kristyn and Ryan then transitioned into a discussion on sustainability in businesses.  Kristyn references a report from Willis Tower Watson which states that 51% of S&P 500 companies are using green initiatives to measure incentive plans for their executives.  As Ryan says “green in the new black”. They tie this back to the discussion on Oatly.  Kristyn explains that alternative milks do earn a few points because they aren’t the dairy, however reports of waste water being mismanaged take away from that. 

Kristyn and Ryan then bring it back into a discussion on the issues with Oatly based on the Spruce Capital report, including Oatly going through 3 accounting auditors in 6 years, which raises a red flag for investors.  They also briefly discussed meme stocks and the parallels between the Gamestop stock and Oatly.  

We couldn’t fit everything they discussed into one blog post, so don’t forget to subscribe to "The Food Biz" on Spotify or in the Apple Podcasts App.  We're thrilled to release this podcast, and would love to hear your input. Reach out to us by email at news@barchart.com with any discussion topics, questions, comments, or overall feedback; Ryan and Kristyn would love to hear from you!