Otis Oat Milk ends four-year search for New Zealand factory to turn its Kiwi oats into world-class oat milk

Otis co-founders Tim Ryan and Chris Wilkie have been on a mission to return to making their oat milk in New Zealand ever since they launched in Lincoln, Canterbury, as the very first New Zealand oat milk brand in 2018. 

“As we scaled up our production, we weren’t prepared to compromise on the nutritional quality of our oat milk. Because of this, we’ve had to ship our New Zealand-grown oats to Sweden for manufacture due to the lack of a local factory with the technology required to produce premium oat milks to the gold-standard we demand.

“The journey to setting up our own factory has been long and hard and has involved seven feasibility studies over eight different sites across Aotearoa, costing a lot of money and years of graft for our small start-up. We’re thrilled to have finally cracked this in a partnership with Auckland-based Free Flow, signing on as their first customer with Otis rolling off their lines from late 2023,” said Ryan.

The new Free Flow manufacturing plant will be one of the world’s most technically advanced plant-based milk manufacturing facilities, capable of making 50 million litres of plant-based beverages each year. It is being developed with the world’s leading brain on oat milk, Sweden’s Angie Triantafyllou. Referred to as the ‘godmother of modern oat milk’ for her patented innovations, the ex-Oatly founder is now Chairman of the board at Swedish plant-based technology company Cerealiq and has been heavily involved in the development of the new facility.

“We know New Zealand produces some of the highest quality oats in the world, and when this facility opens, they’ll be producing arguably the highest quality oat milk in the world, too,” Triantafyllou said. 

She says Otis was the first oat milk maker in New Zealand to use Cerealiq’s patented enzyme technology.

“It’s exciting that the technology will be available in New Zealand for the first time, enabling Otis to produce the highest quality, nutritious and delicious oat milk in their backyard.

“The new facility will produce oat milk to the world-class standard levels of beta-glucan, the nutritional gold ingredient found in Otis and premium oat milks. It helps the body to maintain stable cholesterol levels,” she said.

Ryan says Free Flow and Cerealiq’s state-of-the-art technology will be available to other plant-based beverage makers in New Zealand, shutting out imposed reliance on importing goods in favour of NZ-made products.

He and Wilkie started Otis Oat Milk with a strong underlying philosophy that food has the power to change the world.

The plant-based business works closely with the New Zealand Oat Industry Group, Harraways, and around 50 arable farmers who operate a crop rotation system, ensuring New Zealand-grown oats remain nutritionally superior to other varieties in the world.

Ryan says plant-based milk alternatives have skyrocketed in recent years, outpacing traditional dairy milk, with no sign of slowing. “Grocery spending on plant-based milks in New Zealand increased by 44 percent from 2019 to the end of 2022, with sales jumping from $61 million to $88 million.”

“We’re beyond excited to return Otis’ manufacturing to its home in Aotearoa. It’s been a hard slog to find the right partner to make our world-class milk in New Zealand, but we’ve cracked it, and finally, we can say Otis is 100 percent homegrown – from crop to cup.”