Glebe Farm Foods hires PR agency Capture Communications

Glebe Farm Foods, the firm that won a trademark dispute with Oatly, a Swedish oat milk brand, has hired Capture Communications for PR support. Capture communications have been working for Glebe Farm Foods since April when it won a pitch against some other PR agencies. The PR firm and Glebe Farm Foods have been working together on a retainer basis.

Capture Communications says it wasn’t permitted to announce the partnership because of the court battle, despite having to defend the reputation of Glebe Farm Foods during the High Court battle. The legal tussle between the firms began when Oatly alleged that Glebe Farm Foods had infringed on Oatly’s trademarks. This was as a result of Glebe Farm Foods’ oat milk brand called PureOaty.

Eventually, the High Court ruled in favor of Glebe Farm Foods, saying the company did not infringe on Oatly’s trademarks with PureOaty. Oatly is reportedly not going to appeal the decision of the High Court.

Glebe Farm Foods

Glebe Farm Foods is a family company run in Cambridgeshire. The company has specialized in cereal production and oat milling for more than 30 years. Glebe Farm Foods has also been producing oat milk for about three years. By growing its own oats on the farm, and also producing oat drinks from it, Glebe Farm enjoys a lot of benefits including reduced emission and transportation costs.

Glebe Farm is run by Rebecca Rayner and Philip Rayner, siblings that fought back when Oatly, through its lawyer, accused Glebe Farms of infringing on its Oatly trademarks with its PureOaty product.

Glebe Farm’s oats are harvested within 40 miles of the farm and are milled and milked on the farm as well. The farm is also the UK’s first oat drink facility, and it enjoys vertical integration in its operation. Glebe farm grows its entire oats so the oat chaff from the milling process is used to power the farm’s production plant.

The farm prides itself on being a class-leading renewable energy and electricity user. Glebe Farm has two generators that run on biomass and intends to add a third soon. Solar energy is also used to power the farm’s plant.

Dispute with Oatly

Oatly is a Swedish food company that manufactures dairy products’ alternatives from oats. The company has its headquarters in Malmo and was formed in the 90’s following research from Lund University. The Swedish company was listed on the New York stock exchange in May and has a market cap of about $15 billion.

Oatly is the oat milk market leader in the UK; an edition of its oat milk known as the barista earned the company more than £38 billion, though competition has been increasing from firms of different sizes as plant-based milk alternatives have become more popular in the last decade. Oatly’s hope was that by taking the matter to court, it would obtain an injuction to stop Glebe Farm from producing and selling PureOaty.

Oat milk now has a bigger market share than almond milk and soy milk, after exceeding them in recent years.