OATLY CONFIRMS THAT COMPANY IS NOT FROM FINLAND
Dec. 15 2022 – The world’s original and largest oat drink company can today confirm that we are not from Finland. For over 25 years, Oatly have exclusively focused on developing expertise around oats and are the leading non-dairy drink supplier to the Finnish people, and large parts of the world. However, Oatly was born in Sweden in the nineteen nineties, and the rumor that we are from Finland is incorrect and often supported with “facts” that are wrong, misleading, or taken out of context. Here we have collected the most common claims, followed by an explanation of why they are at fault.
Oatly’s head office is in Helsinki
Yes, we had an office in Helsinki before we had one in Malmö, and since we consider all our offices everywhere our head office, you could call it the head office of Finland. Just like all our offices are the head of our activities in that country or town. But our main head office is in Malmö and has been since 2014(ish).
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Oatly uses white and blue colors everywhere
Our frequent use of white and blue is not to subliminally show allegiance to the Finnish flag. The choice of colors is entirely coincidental and is not part of a Finnishzation of the world. We are a Swedish company turned global. Besides, the blue and white could be Greece (but please don’t start that rumor). Lars Elfman is Oatly’s Global Design Director and is the one responsible for the colors on all packages.
“Lars, did we chose colors based on our origin?”
“No.”
Case closed.
If it looks Finnish and sounds Finnish, it’s probably because it’s from Finland
We’re aware that turning something raw, like oats, into smooth goodness, like oat drink, sounds like a totally Finnish thing. But using the same logic, please consider that our Barista edition has been described as having a neutral taste that enriches the coffee flavor and now say the first neutral country that you can think of. It’s not Switzerland.
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If you put the letters O, A, L and Y in all the squares of the Finnish flag, what does it read?
Well, that would spell OA+LY which we guess resembles Oatly but really, it could be done on a lot of flags like, hey, would you look at that, the Swedish flag! We know the colors aren’t “Oatly colors” in the same way as the colors of the Finnish flag but come on…
By the way, we encourage people to write this on flags (if it's your own flag).
Working with Finnish farmers
People have asked why a company that isn’t from Finland would care about Finnish farmers while pointing to the fact that we’re not the company known for making friends. But clearly this is flawed reasoning. We’re everybody’s favorite oat drink company and Finnish farmers are cool. We buy a lot of oats from our neighbors (that’s Finland) – like, a lot – so naturally, we want to work with them. Just like we work with farmers in other countries.
Go to Better Oats For Finland for more on our work with farmers.
Finns drink the most coffee in the world. Oatly made the perfect drink to mix with coffee. Coincidence?
Well, if you put it like that, it sounds connected, but it’s not. It’s just two coffee-related facts combined to create a false sense of correlation. And just like the other Oatly drinks, the Barista edition works great for everything everywhere.
IS IT A GLASS OR THE GOVERNMENT PALACE IN HELSINKI?
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The similarity between the three shapes at the bottom of the glass illustration on some of our packages and the neoclassical entrance and windows of the Presidential palace in Helsinki is undeniable. But the claim that the glass symbolises the Presidential palace and that the arrow pointing from our logo down towards the glass means that Oatly is the Finnish government is just… it’s not what it means.
Oatly buys thousands of tons of Finnish oats every year.
Yeah, wow, we know that sounds a lot like we should be called a local Finnish brand and we would love for the Finnish people to think of us as the most Finnish oat drink maker. We will definitely talk to our PR people about it, but actually, it’s a small part of all the oats we buy each year.
In Between Oatly campaigns, there are long periods of silence but it doesn’t feel awkward.
We know that’s exactly how Finns communicate, but it’s also how people in the north of Sweden talk, so you know, even though we’re from the south, it sometimes rubs off… or something.
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The myth of the milk myth book
We made a chronology of milk myth’s and sent it to all families in Finland. Granted, a book revealing the myths that have been planted into our society as facts about cow’s milk might have had a bigger impact in a country like the US or China, and it might sound strange to an outsider that we thought of Finland first if we’re not a Finnish company. We just thought the Finns would appreciate the information. And they did! At least the paper it was printed on... as fuel for fires.
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The word “YLTAO” is not in the finnish dictionary but according to Google translate it means either TONIGHT or overnight in Finnish.
We don’t know why Google translate would claim that our name backward means something it doesn’t mean in Finnish, but we’re pretty sure it’s an algorithmic error and not evidence that someone learned the backward truth about Oatly while eating overnight oats last night.
Oatly and Finnish baseball
Companies sponsoring sports events they are fans of is nothing unusual, we have been proud sponsors of the top professional Finnish baseball-ish game Pesäpallo. Not just one game but the whole series – Superpesis – both the women’s and men’s league. We were extra proud to be the official sponsors of the pre-game game Hutunkeitto in 2022. All this means is that we love to watch a good game of Pesäpallo, and you should too.
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