Hamdi Ulukaya has also hired additional $ 500 million to extend his operation in the installation in Idaho – and says he’s just starting.
CBillionaire founder of Hobani Go all to be made to the Americans. CEO Hamdi Ulukaya innovated this week in a new ultramodern installation in New York State which will produce a billion pounds Yogurts, cremiars and other Chobani products. Ulukaya says he will invest $ 1.2 billion in all, and the plan comes only a month after revealing that he spent $ 500 million to extend the Chobani factory in Idaho – and he says that it is only the start.
“Lots of good food has not been made accessible to everyone,” said Ulukaya, 52 years old Forbes expansion. “And if you find how to make it accessible to everyone, the most difficult part is how to make sure you really have the manufacturing capacity to do so.”
“We are doing everything internally,” he continues. “One hundred percent of the products we manufacture. It’s hard to do because it means plants. ”
As the best-selling yogurt brand in the United States with $ 3 billion (annual income) and yogurt sales up 20% last year, Chobani is in a position that most of the food companies would envy. Chobani, which acquired the Colombe Coffee for $ 900 million in 2023, is one of the largest independent and private brands in the consumer products industry. And he made Ulukaya, an immigrant from Türkiye who owns the majority of the company, of an estimated value at 2.4 billion dollars.
Now Ulukaya uses its influence to double northeast at a time when the region has faced an exodus of dairy producers. Chobani and New York Governor’s office call for the country’s most important investment in the manufacture of natural foods. The new factory will be financed thanks to the money from Chobani at hand. A spokesperson for Chobani said that “these projects are multi-year projects that do not require the company to take additional debt at the moment.” In addition, New York State incentives include $ 73 million in tax credits over ten years and $ 22 million from a grant program ready for economic development, Fast NY.
The new installation will be designed to treat up to 12 million pounds of milk each day, which means that Chobani, already the largest milk buyer in New York, will increase his expenses by around 6 billion pounds per year. It will be a huge boon for surviving dairy producers in the region, many of which have struggled at volatile prices and the consolidation of industry have led many bankruptcy farms, while the main competitors like Danone have reduced contracts or left the region.
“Our region has truly unique challenges,” explains Gary Hirshberg, the founder of Stonyfield Organics, citing the higher costs of the North for energy as well as food for dairy cows. “The investment is seriously necessary. We have lost a lot of dairy infrastructure. So, any important investment in the North of New York Dairy is just a good thing. ”
But Hirshberg adds that the supply of additional conventional milk “does not really solve the problem” because the milk is sold at such low prices. Organic milk is better for farmers, especially those in the northeast where farms are much smaller than on the west coast, he notes, because farmers need the high-end price that organic milk will seek to ensure that a small family farmer can always earn enough money to support their business and resist the industry. And there is currently a shortage of organic milk. “This is really where the investment is necessary,” he says.
Instead, Chobani has become general public. Once finished, the installation of 1.4 million square feet in Rome, New York, will be able to manage up to 28 production lines. Sitting on 150 acres on the site of the old Griffiss Air Force base, the new factory will be the second in Chobani in the state and should create 1,000 full -time jobs in the region.
“Big Food has plants, infrastructure, all that and it’s very difficult to build,” says Ulukaya. “We spend more time on the fundamental principles of the company, which does it. To reach the upper level, these are fundamentals. ”
These massive infrastructure investments mark a complete moment of circle for Ulukaya. Born from a Kurdish family of farmers in a small village in eastern Turkey, he grew up learning how his family made cheese and yogurt. In 1994, he immigrated to New York to study English, and his father later asked him to import family feta cheese after achieving the poor quality of what was sold in the United States Ulukaya then started to manufacture and sell his own FETA manufactured in a small factory in the northern New York State, but the company has barely broken.
The good idea struck in 2005, when Ulukaya, then aged 33, fell randomly on an advertisement for a fully supplied yogurt factory for sale in South Edmeston, New York (about an hour from the news). The 84 -year -old factory had been closed by Kraft, and after a tour, Ulukaya was inspired to give it new life. Against the advice of his lawyer, Ulukaya bought the installation with a small business loan.
Nourishing the frenzy: “If we cannot feed our children, good food is not a success,” says Ulukaya. “Chobani is the food company of tomorrow.”
Eugene Gologusky / Getty Images
He spent two years perfecting his Greek yogurt recipe before sending the first cases to a long Island grocer in 2007. From there, from there, the Greek yogurt of Chobani quickly became a success on the shelves, thanks in part to his lower sugar and higher protein levels than the popular American style yogurt at the time.
While Ulukaya was the pioneer of a major change in the alley of yogurt, the competitors began to rename their yogurt as Greek. But customers have confused. The poorly manufactured products ruined the reputation of Greek yogurt, and the over-saturation of brands worsened the situation. However, Chobani persevered and maintained his clientele, coming out of the stronger fray for that.
Throughout this period, Ulukaya prioritized its manufacture of New York while building the first operation in the northwest of Chobani with a factory of $ 450 million in Twin Falls, in Idaho in 2012, said at the time be the largest yogurt factory in the world. Chobani had just exceeded $ 1 billion in annual income, and the extended infrastructure gave Ulukaya the possibility of focusing on quality, while most of its competitors turned to contractual manufacturers selling standard formulas.
“The fight I give as a founder is, how can I make sure that it is always the entrepreneurial, but it has structures?” Said Ulukaya.
While investment in infrastructure has become the key to Ulukaya’s strategy, it has also become a crucial element of the reason why Ulukaya has maintained majority control while avoiding causing many external investors, because many hierarchize short-term yields on longer-term investments in self-fabrication. “This company will never be part of another business. Never, ”he says. “This company is designed to serve for a very long time to offer good food to people.”
And now that Ulukaya has two major renovations in progress both – in Idaho and New York – his full vision is starting to be in sight. “We could make all the progress of life, but if we cannot feed the right food for our children, it is not a success,” explains Ulukaya. “Chobani is the food company of tomorrow.”
More Forbes
