By Sam Boughedda
Investing.com — Oatly Group's (NASDAQ:OTLY) stock price fell 18% Monday after the company reported its third-quarter earnings, missing revenue consensus and reporting supply chain disruptions.
The vegan, plant-based milk company announced a loss per share of 7 cents on revenue of $171.06 million. Analysts polled by Investing.com anticipated a per-share loss of 9 cents on revenue of $185.89 million.
Looking ahead, for the full year, the company expects revenue to exceed $635 million, below the $694.1 million consensus.
Meanwhile, Oatly also told investors that it is investigating a quality issue identified at one of its production facilities that will seemingly result in the destruction of inventory and lost sales in the EMEA region.
It has also felt the effects of Covid-19 in the region, explaining:
"In EMEA, we are starting to build supply to meet consumer demand, but the pace at which we expected to increase revenue in new and existing retailers and to open new markets is slower than we anticipated as we navigate a dynamic COVID operating environment," stated Oatly.
However, the company believes it "is primarily a timing issue," and in the first half of 2022, it expects to have an "increased share of shelf space at retail given our strong velocities and current supply levels."
Toni Petersson, Oatly's CEO, said: "Global consumer demand for our products continues to be strong and grow as we expand production and increasingly scale our operations. The robust third quarter revenue increase reflects broad-based growth across geographies and sales channels."
However, Petersson revealed another challenge the company is facing, again arising from Covid-19 — supply chain issues from the Delta variant-related restrictions and temporary foodservice closures in Asia, which has hit its revenues by around $3 million..