10
years ago, a Turkish man moved to America with $3,000 and after a few years and
a loan of a million dollars, bought a frozen yogurt factory in upstate New
York. 5 years later, that man, Hamdi Ulukaya, ended up with 100% of
his company and 1 billion in revenue, something only done by tech companies
such as Google and Facebook.
Hamdi
Ulukaya is the owner and CEO of Chobani, a Greek yogurt company. He's also
the only investor in his company. Strained yogurt, or as its known in the
States, Greek yogurt, is known for its extremely thick and smooth
texture, and is created by straining the excess whey from the product. The
food has been taking America and therest of the world by storm. Chobani stands
for shepherd in Turkish, which comes from his dedication to his
hard-work to his father's farm back in Turkey.
He sold his first case of Greek yogurt in October of 2007, and now the company is worth 1 billion, a growth rare in the tech world, and unheard of in the foods section of the market. He started his company buy hiring 4 people and a yogurt master from Turkey after he bought Kraft's yogurt factory in New Berlin and started working on attempting to produce the best-tasting, most high-quality yogurt around. Nowadays, Chobani has employed over 3,000 people after owning 2 factories; one in Idaho and another in New York. There first sale was to a store in Great Neck, New York, called Ever Fresh, a kosher store. He, salesman Kyle O’Brien, and several others hand-packed the 300 cases of plain, peach, strawberry, blueberry, and vanilla and drove them to the Long Island store. Chobani's big break came when ShopRite picked them up in their stores. Business exploded, and more and more orders came, even though they didn't have a marketing campaign.
Since the business boom, they've gone from about 55,000 cases per week to nearly 2 million. They were able to open a new factory twice the size of the one in New York. The factory opened in Twin Falls, Idaho.
He was recently awarded the Ernst & Young's
World Entrepreneur of the Year against 48 other entrepreneurs. He doesn't
glorify himself, either. His office in Chobani's upstate New York
factory includes a desk and a few airy-themed pictures. He doesn't wear a suit.
Instead, he wears jeans and a little red bracelet with the Turkish blue
eye good-luck symbol. Not the type of usual entrepreneur you'd
picture.
He
wants to pave a pathway for future company owners in America to make real
products for their consumers. Chobani prides itself on its 100% authentic,
all-natural yogurt. Its motto is "Nothing but good," and with all its
revenue, it must be.
Now, the factory owns 60,000 cows and purchases about 1 billion pounds of milk each year, which is then turned into the annual sale of about 2,000,000 yogurt cases. Chobani proves to be a company that highlights the American Dream for immigrants coming to make in big.
