Free Flow Manufacturing co-founders Adam Sorenson (left) and Scott Day (right) with Otis Oat Milk national sales manager Finn Geoghegan. Photo / Supplied
Free Flow Manufacturing co-founders Adam Sorenson (left) and Scott Day (right) with Otis Oat Milk national sales manager Finn Geoghegan. Photo / Supplied
South Island oat-milk brand Otis, backed by Donald Trump’s former chief of staff Chris Liddell and celebrity chef Nadia Lim, will return its upscaled production to New Zealand after three years abroad, at a new plant milk manufacturing site to be built in east Auckland.
Beverage-maker Free Flow Manufacturing willspend a “significant”, undisclosed amount to expand its existing facility in Glen Innes by 6500sq m, fitted with German machinery and technology to produce up to 50 million litres of plant-based milk annually.
Otis has signed the first production contract, finalising its effort to bring production home from Sweden, which included feasibility testing eight other manufacturing sites across New Zealand.
“We’ve had to ship our New Zealand oats to Sweden [in August 2020] for manufacture due to the lack of a local partner that has the technology required to produce premium oat milks to the gold-standard we demand,” Otis co-founders Tim Ryan and Chris Wilkie said in a statement.
“We’re thrilled to have finally cracked this with Free Flow.”
Otis Oat Milk co-founder Tim Ryan. Photo / Supplied
The Humble Oat Co, trading as Otis Oat Milk, was founded by Ryan and Wilkie in Lincoln, Canterbury in 2018.
Its Companies Officer shareholder registry counted Chris Liddell and Nadia Lim among its backers, with holdings of less than 2 per cent each.
Free Flow co-founder Scott Day said the facility - consisting of 2500sq m of production space, which could also brew beer, and a further 4000sq m of warehousing space - would open up another revenue stream for the contract manufacturer.
“Grocery spending on plant-based milks in New Zealand increased by 44 per cent from 2019 to the end of 2022, with sales jumping from $61 million to $88m.
“Despite this, New Zealand has had to rely on mainly imported products or those manufactured overseas to meet this demand.
Free Flow was founded by Day, Adam Sorenson and Russell Hooper, as an extension of their flavoured sparkling water brand Vista, 25 per cent owned by residential and commercial property developer Kurt Gibbons.
