Karoliina Ahtiainen
Sonja Saari
Jyri Rantalainen
Claire Dubosc
Hanken School of Economics
Sanchi Maheshwari
Martin Fougere
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Pulled Oats is a plant-based protein made of Nordic oats, faba beans and yellow beans, thus, it is 100 % vegan. Pulled Oats is a product that contributes to three United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals: Good Health and Well-Being (3), Responsible Consumption and Production (12), and Climate Action (13), as it is more ecological to grow oats than use huge amount of farmland, water and transportation to produce traditional cooking-protein. Not to mention, it is good for both your health and for the environment to reduce meat consumption, and the production of Pulled Oats does not abuse animals.
The company aims for Finnish and Swedish citizens to become more aware about food and water consumption through the introduction of Pulled Oats, which can be used as meat substitutes on a daily basis. Gold&Green Foods created a strong identity around its product so that its brand image matches with the values they believe in and want to share with their customers. This concept goes beyond the selling of Pulled Oats as it aims to raise awareness and provide consumers with a better understanding of the influence they can have over their environment. Thus, choosing Pulled Oats as a choice of protein is not only ecological and environmentally friendly, it is also a way to save the world.
Innovation emerged from the combination of a scientist Reetta Kivelä focusing on oats for its superior nutritional qualities and the idea of a vegetarian designer Maija Itkonen to provide new alternatives to meat that could show the diversity and greatness of vegetarian dishes. It took over six months to create a product that would, in addition to provide human beings with more proteins than beef or chicken, potentially “shake the nutrition field” in the future, according to Annette Kauppinen, Chief Marketing Officer of Gold&Green Foods.
Gold&Green Foods aims to introduce new sustainable eating habits for individuals who will be facing important climate changes in a near future. Human beings will have to reduce their meat consumption and become “flexitarian”, which brings up interesting compromises for consumers potentially sensitive to the limited offer of vegetarian dishes in both restaurants and grocery stores.
Ecological values are very important to the leaders of Gold&Green Foods, and those values formed the base of the innovation. As Reetta states, right from the start they “had the value in the centre of company.” Even though food companies try to create better plant-based protein as alternative options for meat, the planet is still struggling of meat industry’s emissions and the animals are treated poorly. Reetta points out, that considering climate change, it is very clear that mass meat industry is one of the biggest problems in the world. Therefore, there was a clear need for a product like Pulled Oats. “We are very purpose-driven company focusing on saving lives”, concludes Reetta.
Because of the current state of mass meat industry and because Reetta is a food-scientist, it felt very natural that food acted as a way to face that issue. As the founders of the innovation state: “We change the world one meal at a time, and every meal matters.” The product is very healthy source of protein, and actually 100g Pulled Oats contain more protein than the same amount of chicken. “In the end of the day, we are mostly interested to saving the planet”, Annette sums up.
Gold&Green Foods carries out values that can be considered as current questionings and debates within our society. This goes from the influence of individuals over climate change to female leadership and provide entrepreneurs inspirational insights according to Annette whose leitmotiv is “Dreams do come true”. Therefore, the sale of Pulled Oats is enhanced by a strong brand identity and this is most likely what created such an interest into consumers’ minds when products were released. Indeed, Pulled Oats encountered an immediate success and constantly “takes up bigger shelves in supermarkets all over Finland”, Annette says.
The company is now raising awareness around environmental matters and make people understand the influence of their water consumption over ecosystems. In addition to this, Gold&Green Foods wants to show that female leadership is on the rise: If people are all “purpose-driven”, females can work to become efficient managers and carry out their objectives, showing off a great example for potential entrepreneurs. As Annette mentioned several times during the interview, “Anything is possible!”. Thus, another United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal can be applied to the company: Gender Equality (5).
Innovation is a key factor to be considered for the performance of a business. Gold&Green Foods created a new meat substitute from scratch using oats, which is why it required the expertise of Reetta who is an expert on the matter. The product encountered an immediate success when it was released in just a few shops around Finland: Therefore, marketing has proven to be efficient in this situation.
The timing for the innovation of Pulled Oats was more than perfect. Even though the company was built from scratch, the company got so much publicity right from the beginning that huge amount of people were interested in working for Gold&Green Foods. Therefore, it was relatively easy to hire the right and the best people to work for Gold&Green Foods. “The key persons just announced them to come work for us, and they had the same passion as us”, clarifies Reetta. The pool talent of the company reached over 400 people within a few weeks after products were released (the company has grown from 5 to 39 employees since 2015) and their revenues increased by 292% since the establishment of the company on the Finnish market (Asiakastieto, 2018). Reetta’s and Maija’s common objective to raise awareness among individuals is slowly becoming real through the success of Pulled Oats.As the United Nation’s Climate action goal (13) states: “Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.” The world is already facing major environmental catastrophes and the world is moving towards to its extreme limits. Not only climate change, but also biodiversity is a pressing issue, and we can see the changes on a daily basis. As Reetta states, “it just feels natural that we have to do something.”
The ecological and ethical problems regarding mass meat industry need to be addressed seriously. One of the most effective way to address these issues is showing to people that the best way to have an impact is by changing their eating habits. “With one meal of Pulled Oats, you can save 5 bath tubes of water” concludes Annette. Through small scale actions, people can truly respond to climate change and take steps towards brighter future. For the founders of Pulled Oats, this is inspiring and important, and it goes beyond the actual concept of building up a company. The companies that focus on plant-based food can together lobby towards plant-based future, hence, saving the world.
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Mass meat industry is one of the biggest causes of climate change, as producing meat results in huge amount of emissions and the industry’s impact on the planet is devastating. In 2014, the founders of the company Gold&Green Foods Ltd. confronted the issue by inventing a new plant-based product, Pulled Oats, which revolutionised the food industry in Finland. Immediately, the people in Finland fell in love with Pulled Oats – it is not only an alternative to meat, it is extremely rich in protein, minerals and fibres, and all without additives or chemicals.
