Oatly’s Philadelphia-invented Cream Cheese Pre-Launches Exclusively in Philadelphia, Home of the Company’s Philadelphia-based R&D Lab

2/22/23

MALMÖ, Sweden, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Feb. 22, 2023 -- Oatly, the world’s original and largest oat drink company, today announced the limited release of their new, forthcoming plant-based cream cheese, invented at the company’s Philadelphia R&D lab. This groundbreaking innovation was spearheaded by Oatly’s Philadelphia-based food scientists, most of whom live in downtown Philadelphia, with the exception of a product developer who lives in Cherry Hill, New Jersey but tells people he’s from “five miles outside the city”.

Starting today, Oatly’s plant-based cream cheese—again, invented in Philadelphia by mostly Philadelphia-based food scientists—will be made exclusively available in Philadelphia before it’s released to the wider U.S. market later this year. 

“This cream cheese is an important step toward growing our portfolio of delicious plant-based products, and we want to first introduce it to the city it was invented in,” said Leah Hoxie, SVP of Innovation at Oatly North America, who went to graduate school in Pittsburgh, which is sadly not Philadelphia, but still in Pennsylvania. “At its core, this is a cream cheese with deep and authentic Philadelphia roots.” 

As part of this pre-launch release, Oatly has partnered with local Philadelphia bagel chains Spread Bagelry and Philly Bagels, who are now serving Oatly’s Philadelphia-invented cream cheese today through March 31st (or until supplies last). A ceremonial “first spread” by Philly native and Olympic gold medalist figure skater, Tara Lipinski, officially kicked off the limited release today. 

“We’re excited to partner with Oatly on the release of their cream cheese from Philadelphia.” said Brooks Tanner, COO at Spread Bagelry. “It’s rare and exciting to find a spread with such a true connection to this great city. Go birds.” 

This is the first time Oatly has embarked on a limited pre-launch strategy in one particular city. The hope is that Philadelphians adopt Oatly’s cream cheese the same way they’ve adopted other hometown staples like greased street sign poles, Gritty and the 2006 film Invincible. 

At this time, the press release will devolve into a random list of regional words and phrases to reinforce the company’s Philadelphia bonafides: hoagies, DELCO, wiz wit, jawn, K-o-P, youse, iggles, “there was traffic on the Schuylkill so we cut over to Kelly Drive and stopped for wooder ices”, scrapple.

We are the world’s original and largest oat drink company. For over 25 years, we have exclusively focused on developing expertise around oats: a global power crop with inherent properties suited for sustainability and human health. Our commitment to oats has resulted in core technical advancements that enabled us to unlock the breadth of the dairy portfolio, including alternatives to milks, ice cream, yogurt, cooking creams, spreads and on-the-go drinks. Headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, the Oatly brand is available in more than 20 countries globally.