Drinking Your Oats

Chobani is jumping into the oat milk business with both feet.

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As sales of cow milk decline the yogurt giant is plotting their move into the growing alt.milk market. More and more people are discovering their intolerance to dairy (about half the population worldwide) and searching for plant-based alternatives. This, plus to that the increased awareness of the impact agriculture has on the planet, has spawned a wide range of milk alternatives.

Hamdi Ulukaya, the CEO of Chobani, has invested heavily in oat milk production and various recipes to make it drinkable. Drinkable even for someone like him, who is lactose intolerant. In fact, about 65% of the world’s population has a reduced ability to digest lactose after infancy. Making the “Got Milk” campaign one of the most successful allergen rebrandings in history.

Yes, the Greek yogurt titan—the man who once milked cows for a living and famously bootstrapped what became a $1.5-billion-in-annual-revenue company by getting America hooked on the creamy, tart, and protein-rich yogurt of his Turkish youth—is sensitive to dairy.

Source: Chobani’s empire was built on Greek yogurt. Here’s why its next move is oat milks.

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