UK plant milk maker Rude Health is sold to Finland’s Oddlygood

Rude Health, maker of one of Britain’s best known plant-based milk brands, has been acquired by Oddlygood, a food and drink company that was spun out of Valio, the Finnish dairy giant.
Camilla Barnard, who co-founded the company with her ex-husband and stands to make a “seven figure” sum from the sale, said it was lucky timing to close the deal before anticipated increases to capital gains tax in tomorrow’s budget.
The sale process began more than two years ago, she said, and completed yesterday. The terms have not been disclosed but Rude Health reported sales of £23.8 million and a pre-tax profit of £100,000 in its last financial year.
Rude Health sells a variety of plant-based cereals, mueslis and snacks but is best known for its milk alternatives, including almond, oat and hazelnut milks, which account for 80 per cent of sales.
Barnard, 53, said that the buyer was “really strong in the yoghurts and dessert categories” and sells its products predominantly in the “Nordics and eastern Europe”.
These complementary strengths helped to convince her that Oddlygood was the right “home” for Rude Health, which she started in 2005 with Nick Barnard. Together they still own “just over 50 per cent” of the business; he is also set to make millions from the deal. About 30 current and former employees with small stakes in Rude Health will also benefit.
Barnard said her main worry in selling the company, which she describes as her “third baby”, was whether the brand might be damaged. “Is the thing I’ve put 19 years of my life into creating going to disappear or come to a sticky, miserable end? Actually, with this deal I’m thinking the opposite: am I going to be missing out on this great journey?”
She added: “The business doesn’t need me in the way that it used to and it’s got a home that will give it what I can’t.”
Barnard says that for Rude Health’s team of 30 nothing will change in the short term and the company will continue to operate from the UK. “Gradually, it’s about trying to make use of all the enhanced opportunities as to how the companies will work best together.”
This could include Rude Health using the “incredible” research and development facilities owned by Valio, Oddlygood’s parent company.
The team will continue to be led by Tim Smith, who has been Rude Health’s chief executive since November 2021. He previously held senior roles at SC Johnson, the US manufacturing conglomerate.
Barnard will work for Oddlygood as a brand consultant a couple of days a month but also has plans to fulfil a “lifelong ambition to get a tan”.
“I don’t tan easily, it’s not something that’s going to be achieved during a two-week holiday. That’s going to take some proper, gradual sun exposure over the course of a year. It needs to be food-based, so I’m going to either do cookery courses or just eat my way around various countries,” she said.