Meet Neil Brady, the Managing Director of Oatier - a proudly Irish oat milk brand now making waves not only at home but also across the UK and EU. We had the pleasure of sitting down with Neil for a warm and inspiring conversation about what it's like to lead an oat milk company in today's fast-evolving plant-based market - and the unique challenges that come with it.
Where and when did Oatier start?
The business began in 2015 under the name "The Ancient Grain Company." It started as a husband-and-wife team with very few resources involved. Initially, everyone was working part-time. We also have a sister company called Irish Town, through which we sell oats, primarily to health food stores in Italy and Slovenia. The business grew organically over the years, with no major sales or marketing push, just a focus on providing high-quality oats. Ireland’s soil and climate make it one of the best places in the world to grow oats, and we’ve been working with them for many years.
Around five or six years ago, the founder of Java Republic, the café chain, put out a call for an Irish oat drink. At the time, such a product didn’t exist, but our team thought, “We know oats, so why not give it a shot?” That’s how the idea for the oat drink started. It took us about four years of research and development to get the product right. Oat milk might seem simple—just water, oats, oils, and minerals—but making it is a highly scientific process, involving enzymatic hydrolysis, where enzymes break down the oats. We had a lot of trial and error, with our Head of R&D, Shivani, who has a PhD in this area, leading the way.
In August 2023, we launched the Oatier brand, and that's when The Ancient Grain Company officially became Oatier. So, when people ask me how old the company is, I usually say that the brand is from 2023, but the business has been around since 2015.
Then, it just developed into oat milk?
Yes, exactly. We still supply oats to Italy and Slovenia, but it's a much smaller part of the business now. I don’t generally talk about it much. We might rebrand those products under the Oatier name in the future, but for now, our customers in those markets still recognize the Irish Town brand. Our main focus is on oat milk.
Was it hard to find customers in the beginning, especially given Ireland’s traditional dairy consumption?
When we started developing the product, we thought it would take a year or two, but we faced some delays due to COVID and maternity leave for our Head of R&D. If we had launched six years ago, it might have been much harder, but by the time 2023 came around, the market was ready for a product like ours.
Of course, outside major cities, people might look at oat milk as something unfamiliar, especially since dairy is so ingrained in Irish culture. For many, their families have been dairy farmers for generations, and anything that’s not dairy can seem strange. But we primarily sell to baristas. We offer two products: our Barista Oat Milk and our Barista Gluten-Free Oat Milk, both specifically designed for use in coffee. Our target audience is café owners, managers, and baristas—not individual consumers. Baristas already understand the product, so there’s very little education needed on our part.
In business, there's a saying: "If you're explaining, you're losing." If we had to spend a lot of time and money educating customers on why they should buy our product, it would have been much harder. Fortunately, we found a gap in the market for high-quality Irish oat milk, and it’s been well received. Two major trends are driving the oat milk market: health and wellness, and sustainability.
Oats have health benefits, like being good for cholesterol and heart health, and they are low in carbon emissions compared to dairy. We believe our product is not only good for people, but also good for the planet. As consumer awareness of these benefits grows, we feel we’re in a good position.
So people are consuming more plant-based milks now than ever before?
Yes, and as I said, we focus mainly on the food service sector, which makes up about 95% of our business. That includes cafés, restaurants, hotels, and bars. Only about 5% of our business comes from retail, and it's mainly through specialty retailers like Donnybrook Fair, Mortons, and RA Nola.
We deliberately chose not to pursue mainstream retail immediately. It’s one thing to get your product listed on store shelves, but getting it off the shelf again is a different challenge. Often, you only get a 12-week trial, and if your product doesn’t perform, you’re delisted for years. We wanted to build enough consumer demand before venturing into retail, which we plan to do in the next year or two. For now, there are better margins in food service, and it’s a natural fit for our product, as it’s designed for baristas. Plus, baristas already know how to use it, making it easier for us to sell.
You mostly sell Oatier to coffee shops, right?
Exactly. Consumers do buy it online, and we get messages weekly asking where to buy it, so we try to help them find local retailers. But overall, retail is a small part of our business.
How did you develop the taste of Oatier? Did you draw inspiration from competitors like Oatly or Alpro?
We definitely tried products from other brands before developing ours. We have what we call our "oat graveyard," which includes all the competitor products we’ve tested. We regularly buy new entrants to the market, taste them, and evaluate their sensory properties, such as how they work in coffee.
But we didn’t just want to replicate what others were doing. We focused on the quality of our oats. We’ve been working with oats for a long time, so we knew we had great raw material to work with. But quality alone isn’t enough—there’s also a competitive element. We knew we couldn’t compete on price, so we focused on creating the best quality product possible.
We were fortunate to work with Chagas and University College Cork (UCC) to develop our product. We conducted blind tastings with trained sensory panels to compare our product to the market leaders, including Oatly. We evaluated 14 sensory criteria, like sweetness, aftertaste, foam stability, and the size of the micro bubbles. This helped us refine our product and make sure it was as good as possible before launching.
Oh yes, I used to work as a barista and personally experienced the difficulties with the foam quality of some oat milk brands, especially for latte art.
Exactly! That was a huge focus for us. When Hor was just as good as or better than the market leaders across those 14 criteria, we knew we had a solid product ready for the market. The R&D process was super iterative—we’d come up with a recipe, test it, get feedback, tweak it, and keep going in cycles like that. We worked with a sensory panel of "super tasters," people with a genetic makeup that allows them to taste more compounds than the average person. It’s a rare group—only about 1 in 2000 people can even qualify. Alongside that, we also tested with baristas and regular consumers. Once all three groups were saying the same thing, we knew we had something special. But it took four years to get there. That commitment to perfection was really crucial to us.
Exactly! That was a huge focus for us. When Hor was just as good as or better than the market leaders across those 14 criteria, we knew we had a solid product ready for the market. The R&D process was super iterative—we’d come up with a recipe, test it, get feedback, tweak it, and keep going in cycles like that. We worked with a sensory panel of "super tasters," people with a genetic makeup that allows them to taste more compounds than the average person. It’s a rare group—only about 1 in 2000 people can even qualify. Alongside that, we also tested with baristas and regular consumers. Once all three groups were saying the same thing, we knew we had something special. But it took four years to get there. That commitment to perfection was really crucial to us.
It seems like quality is a big priority for you? Any other core values driving the brand?
Yes, quality is huge, but sustainability is another key value. We wanted the product to not only be good for you but also good for the planet. Our oats are grown in Ireland, and recent third-party research shows that Irish oats have the lowest environmental impact globally. We’re going to highlight this on our packaging soon. We also have a nutritional edge, with beta-glucans in the oats, which are great for heart health. You can even make an EU-approved heart health claim because of it.
We focus a lot on functionality for baristas too—making sure the product foams well, has consistent quality from top to bottom in the carton, and can hold up for latte art. And internally, we value a culture of hard work, honesty, and having fun. We want our customers to feel like they’re working with a brand that’s easy to approach and genuinely pleasant. It costs nothing to be nice, and we really try to live that value.
That’s amazing. And looking at the nutritional side of things, how does Oatier compare to regular dairy milk?
When we were developing our product, we aimed to match the fat content of full-fat dairy milk because fat really drives flavor. That’s why dairy milk tastes so rich—it’s the fat. So, we use sunflower oil, which is neutral in taste and works well in coffee, as oats themselves don’t have much fat. While oat milk has more fiber than dairy milk, the protein content is lower, which is why we didn’t fortify it for the barista blend. The protein doesn’t work as well in coffee, but for a consumer product, we could easily boost the protein.
We also fortify with calcium to mimic dairy milk’s levels, but we don’t fortify with vitamin D, as that’s not necessary for this specific product. We don’t try to mimic dairy milk exactly; oat milk is its own thing. And there’s space for both dairy and plant-based products in the market, especially since billions of people around the world can’t consume dairy for various reasons, whether it’s health, ethical, or cultural. So we’re all for offering options that meet people’s needs.
That’s really thoughtful. Are there any upcoming initiatives you're working on, especially around sustainability or growing sales?
Yes! We’re working towards becoming a B Corp, probably next year. It’s a big undertaking, especially as a small brand, but it aligns with our values. We’re also trying to spread the word about the sustainability benefits of our oats, particularly their low carbon footprint. And in terms of growing the brand, we’re doing more engagement with the barista community, like the free coffee mornings we ran in Brixton. It’s about creating fun, engaging environments where people can learn about our brand and connect over coffee. We’ve also got a latte art competition coming up to further engage with the coffee community.
Yes! We’re working towards becoming a B Corp, probably next year. It’s a big undertaking, especially as a small brand, but it aligns with our values. We’re also trying to spread the word about the sustainability benefits of our oats, particularly their low carbon footprint. And in terms of growing the brand, we’re doing more engagement with the barista community, like the free coffee mornings we ran in Brixton. It’s about creating fun, engaging environments where people can learn about our brand and connect over coffee. We’ve also got a latte art competition coming up to further engage with the coffee community.
Wow, you’re expanding internationally too? How is your distribution going?
Yes, we’re in Ireland, the UK, and a few other places. Recently, we’ve expanded into Northern Ireland, Glasgow, London, Paris, and even Athens, Greece. It’s still a small footprint internationally, but we’re growing! It’s great that oat milk is the same no matter where you go in the world, unlike some other food products that might require different formulations for different markets. This consistency makes life easier as we scale.
Yes, we’re in Ireland, the UK, and a few other places. Recently, we’ve expanded into Northern Ireland, Glasgow, London, Paris, and even Athens, Greece. It’s still a small footprint internationally, but we’re growing! It’s great that oat milk is the same no matter where you go in the world, unlike some other food products that might require different formulations for different markets. This consistency makes life easier as we scale.
Do you have any plans to grow even more internationally?Definitely. We’re aiming to grow globally, and as a small brand, we’re looking for partners who can help us get there. Having consistent products across all markets is key to our international strategy.
Before we wrap up, do you have any final thoughts?
Honestly, it’s been great chatting with you all. For me, it’s about giving back. People were really good to me when I was starting out, so I want to do the same. My only ask is that, in the future, you do a favor for someone else. Just pay it forward haha!