Entrepreneur's Handbook
The Story of Chobani and Its Founder Hamdi Ulukaya
Born in Erzincan in 1972, Hamdi Ulukaya is a member of a dairy farming family in the Ilic district of Erzincan. Ulukaya went to Ankara for university education after spending his primary and high school years in Erzincan. After his education at Ankara University Faculty of Political Sciences, he went to the USA in 1994 for language learning. Ulukaya's father, who visited the USA in 2002, told him that the cheeses in America are not nice and advised him that he could do better. With this recommendation, Ulukaya established a small feta cheese factory. But Ulukaya achieved his real success by buying an old and large yoghurt factory, which was closed in the north of New York state in 2005, and embarking on a yoghurt adventure.
One day, while looking at the spam box, Ulukaya saw an advertisement that a fully equipped old yoghurt factory was for sale. At first he did not care much about this advertisement, but the next day, he thought it was a great opportunity and bought the factory. Working for 5 months to find financing, Ulukaya eventually bought the factory from Kraft Foods and set out to make the best yogurt in the USA. He spent 18 months trying to get the perfect yogurt.
Ulukaya coined the name of his brand Chobani after the word shepherd to make a reference to the land where he was born and raised. After purchasing the factory, the first job with a team of only five people painted the walls of the factory. Over time, it also recruited former employees of the factory, and it reached more than 2,000 employees in five years.
Chobani's marketing and growth strategy was actually quite simple. The first days set its target as small markets and entered the market. Shoppers at small grocery stores liked the yoghurt and started to recommend it to each other. In 2009, it was noticed by the largest supermarkets of America, Wholesale Club and Costco. However, Ulukaya did not have the financial strength to pay shelf rent to grocery stores for Chobani yoghurts. Therefore, he suggested paying to the markets with yogurt instead of cash. When they said "What if he doesn't sell" he showed his factory as a guarantee. Thanks to this accepted proposal, Ulukaya had the opportunity to pay the shelf rent over time as yoghurt was sold. In addition, he sent free ice cream to the events and made his yoghurt taste in the markets, enabling those who liked to buy it immediately.
The growing Chobani opened the world's largest yoghurt factory in Twin Falls, Idaho, USA in December 2012. That year, the company sold more than $ 1 billion, and with this success, it was ranked among the fastest growing and "10 Most Innovative Companies" in the US in the last 10 years.
In 2017, Chobani ranked first in both "Food" and "Social Benefit" categories in the "World's Most Innovative Companies in 2017" list announced by Fast Company. It was also included in the list of "Companies That Changed the World" covering all sectors by Fortune magazine.
Finally, in 2017 Hamdi Ulukaya, in order to contribute to the entrepreneurs in Turkey, has established the "Hamdi Ulukaya Initiative". It brought together 80 giant companies, including Airbnb, Google, Ikea, LinkedIn, UPS and MasterCard, and established the "Tent Foundation", a collaboration platform for companies to achieve their goal of ending the refugee crisis. Also in 2017, he became one of the 100 most influential people in the world on the TIME 100 list, due to his different leadership model in the business world and his work on the refugee crisis.
