Chobani

Chobani is an American food company specializing in strained yogurt. The company was founded in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, a Turkish Kurd businessman. Chobani sells thick, Greek yogurt with a higher protein content than traditional yogurt and is one of the main companies to popularize this style of yogurt in the US. The company has also expanded to non-dairy, plant-based products such as dairy-free vegan yogurt and oat milk. Chobani produces a variety of Greek yogurt products, oat drinks, and snacks. Chobani's yogurt's market share in the U.S. rose from less than 1% in 2007 to more than 20% in 2021, and is the top-selling Greek yogurt brand in the United States and operates the largest yogurt facility in the world. In April 2016, Chobani announced it was giving 10 percent of its ownership stake to its employees. Establishment and early years Chobani was founded in 2005 by the Turkish Kurd and businessman Hamdi Ulukaya. He chose the name Chobani as a variation of the Turkish word çoban, "shepherd". Chobani was inspired by Ulukaya's childhood spent raising sheep and goats and making cheese with his family. Not impressed by the yogurt options available in the United States, Ulukaya made strained yogurt at his home in Upstate New York. He hired a yogurt master from Turkey, with whom he developed his own recipe. Using different bacterial cultures at differing temperatures and fermentation durations, they tested hundreds of recipes to come up with a yogurt with the desired taste, texture, and natural shelf life. Strained yogurt is thicker, creamier and tangier, with a higher protein content, as the whey is strained out. Ulukaya bought a plant in the town of South Edmeston, New York, that was being closed by Kraft Foods; Ulukaya purchased it with a Small Business Administration Loan. Ulukaya hired several of the former Kraft employees and launched his brand in 2007. In 2009, the chain stores Stop & Shop and ShopRite began carrying Chobani, and by the middle of 2009, Chobani was selling 200,000 cases a week. Later that same year, a major breakthrough came when the warehouse club stores BJ's Wholesale Club and Costco began carrying the brand. Ulukaya began adding new product lines to his brand in 2010. By 2010, Chobani realized over $1 billion in annual sales and became the leading seller of Greek yogurt in the U.S. Later history and expansion In November 2011, Chobani expanded into Victoria, Australia through the purchase of Victorian dairy company Bead Foods.