Oatly

How it happened

Oatly, the Swedish maker of oat-based milk and dairy alternatives, became a sensation with hip branding and Blackstone-backed funding before its May 2021 Nasdaq IPO at about $10B — and briefly traded above $15B. Botched factory build-outs left it missing production targets and short on supply, letting rivals like Planet Oat and Danone's Silk seize shelf space; the stock fell roughly 97%, leaving Oatly worth a few hundred million by the mid-2020s. Glassdoor reviewers were split, many prizing the mission and culture, but through the slide they consistently described a company that never outgrew its startup disorganization, citing unscalable processes, repeated cost-cutting layoffs to chase profitability, and a Swedish-HQ-versus-regional divide that left strategy muddled.

Employee accounts paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗. See our methodology.