The Swedish brand Oatly surprised Americans in February with an eccentric Super Bowl ad in which its chief executive lustily sang “wow, no cow” while playing an electric piano in a field.
Later this year, the plant milk maker is expected to flash up on a different set of screens: it plans a New York listing that could value the group as high as $10bn.
The ambition of the once-niche brand has raised eyebrows in the food industry, with one executive calling it “plant-based bitcoin”. But the group’s backers point to a shift towards environmentally friendly products among consumers powering sales at Oatly, which is attempting to conquer the Chinese and US markets.