" probiotics are more than just one raw material, they are enough to support a category. Chobani, after conquering the yogurt field, seems to want to enter the broader probiotic market. A 15-year-old young brand has the innovation, pattern and ambition of a century-old enterprise! "
text: Tina Li
Source: Foodaily Daily Food (ID: foodaily)
Chobani, from its birth to the journey, whether it is its founder's experience from leaving his hometown and wandering overseas to becoming the "Jobs of the yogurt industry", or the attempt to continuously innovate and break through categories, this 15-year-old "young brand" can always bring surprises to the industry and consumers, and even become a trend vane for the development of the global yogurt market.
However, the embarrassment brought by the overall environment cannot be avoided. Since 2015, the yogurt market in the United States has begun to decline. Coupled with the booming growth of plant-based development in the past two years, major dairy companies are exploring new growth points and breakthroughs. Last year, Chobani launched oat milk, oat fermented yogurt and creamer; this year, the brand has added a new Probiotic product line, not only mixed yogurt, but also expanded into the probiotic beverage series...
As a Greek yogurt giant, why did Chobani defeat the then absolute leader of Greek yogurt at the time and gain 8.4% of the market share in the United States in the first year of entering the market? With the rapid changes in market and consumer preferences, how can Chobani quickly adjust its business layout and deal with various emerging categories? Under the trend of "open hatching", what kind of thinking does the young Chobani have and what achievements have been made in the past two years? This article will analyze and show you a comprehensive and three-dimensional Chobani from the aspects of product innovation, incubation acceleration, corporate and social responsibility.
Reading highlights:
, emergence: In the early 2000s, in the era of Greek yogurt in the United States, a Turkish "American Dream" began Chobani's journey. Relying on moderate prices and balanced taste of sweet and sour taste, we defeated the Greek yogurt brands Danone Mini Moos and Fage, and won the advantageous market share;
2. Carrying the stars and seas: not only yogurt, but hope to transform into a comprehensive modern food company. At this stage, we will deepen our connection with probiotics and bet on the probiotic track to revitalize the US yogurt market;
3. Acceleration of hatching: With my time, I will give you the lights along the way. The food incubator project, Chobani Food Incubator, has been launched in 2016, hoping to improve the company's existing food system and find better food innovation entrepreneurs;
4. People-oriented: During the epidemic, the targeted Greek yogurt product Food Bank Batch was launched to benefit Food Bank, and donate to Feeding America (the largest domestic hungry relief organization in the United States) for a long time to truly provide employees with with good care and benefits.
emerged:
American Greek yogurt era, a Turkish "American Dream"
The birth, rise and outbreak of anything has its own internal rationality, and there must be traces of causes and consequences.
In Foodaily's in-depth article "Forty years of American yogurt, how many business legends have been created", we defined the early 2000s as the [Era of Greek Yogurt]. Because of Americans' fanaticism and obsession with protein, Greek yogurt, which is naturally rich in texture and high in protein, has made its debut.
New opportunity has arrived!
In 2005, a Turkish named Hamdi Ulukaya was running Euphrates, a Fida cheese company in New York. The company had annual sales of about $2 million at that time, breaking even. But by chance one day, he checked the email and saw a spam email - the famous Kraft Foods decided to withdraw from the yogurt business and would sell a well-equipped yogurt factory built in 1920.
This message Another Ulukaya was moved.I grew up eating Greek yogurt in Türkiye. However, the yogurt in the United States is sweet and thin, and there are many additives. It is really "not delicious enough", so I can only cook it myself. So he had the idea - entered and bought this yogurt factory and made a Greek yogurt brand in the United States? What made him even more excited was that the sales price of this factory was less than 1 million US dollars. Compared with the price of a fully equipped yogurt factory under normal circumstances, there is no reason to refuse!
So, Ulukaya bought the factory from a bank loan and started the road to creating its own Greek yogurt brand. Just two years later, in 2007, Chobani Greek yogurt officially appeared on supermarket shelves.
In fact, the popularity of Greek yogurt in the United States has been quite twists and turns. In 1990, Danone launched a product called MiniMoos, which was originally a high-protein snack designed for children, but many people regarded it as fresh cheese, and the sales volume was naturally not satisfactory. In 1998, Fage, the Greek yogurt leader who entered the US market, opened the door to US retail with a rich product line and extremely high protein content. However, the price is expensive and the sour taste is heavy, which also limits Fage's rapid development.
, and Chobani, who was born at this time, eventually defeated Mini Moos and Fage with a moderate price and a balanced taste of sweet and sour taste, and gained 8.4% of the market share of Greek yogurt in the United States that year.
In just five years, Chobani's annual turnover exceeded US$1 billion, and its unique formula swept over half of the market in the United States, becoming the best-selling Greek yogurt brand in the United States by , and was rated as one of the 50 most innovative companies in the world by FasCompany. is a Greek yogurt product that is high in protein, low in fat, low in sugar, low in calories, and does not contain preservatives, high consistency, and strong satiety. It is very popular with the younger generation who are eager to lose weight.
In terms of business policies, Chobani is more tough. refuses to outsource, keeps yogurt from production to shelves, and production equipment and storage space are large-scale; insists on entering mainstream supermarkets and grocery stores, and refuses special channels for selling "healthy foods"; is less than US$1.5 in terms of pricing, which is far cheaper than European yogurt sold in food stores; in terms of publicity, Chobani knows how to use creative advertising to attract consumers, interacts with netizens through social networking platforms, and uses Printerest waterfall flow to display the picture content. From these aspects, Chobani is ambitious and does her best to seize consumers and markets.
The heart of the stars:
hopes to transform into a comprehensive modern food company. At this stage, it will deepen its connection with probiotics
With the brand's leading position in the Greek yogurt market, Chobani has successfully built itself into one of the largest yogurt producers in the United States. "So goes Chobani, so goes the category" is enough to prove Chobani's position in the yogurt market.
In today's yogurt market, where innovative products are emerging, Chobani can still develop rapidly and maintain its "star status". In addition to the excellent products themselves, it must also benefit from the brand's continuous adjustment, innovation and maintaining an open attitude.
At present, Greek yogurt is the largest category in Chobani's products, but Chobani has not stopped there. Continuously expanding the product categories is a manifestation of its ambition.
In fact, Chobani has set its goal a long time ago, hoping to transform from a yogurt manufacturer to a "modern food company" (details read: Not stopping innovation, Greek yogurt giant Chobani hopes to transform into a comprehensive modern food company) to produce more nutritious and affordable products for more consumers. In his opinion, this brand still has a lot of room for development. While not giving up yogurt, they are also ready to face a larger market.
According to the words of Chobani President and Chief Operating Officer Peter McGuinness, "We have always been innovative, which is part of our uneasy spirit, which will never change, but will help us obtain competitive categories in the market." He also pointed out that the yogurt market in the United States has not been fully penetrated so far compared to Europe and Canada.
From 2019 to 2020, Chobani took action quickly with the naked eye.
, 2019: Focus on plant-based, launching the coconut/oat plant-based and nut butter series
At the beginning of 2019, Chobani entered the non-dairy field and announced the launch of the non-dairy yogurt based on coconut mixture, the Chobani Non-Dairy series, which is Chobani’s first series of products entering the plant-based yogurt. This non-dairy yogurt using coconut-based is made of artificially grown organic coconuts, contains probiotics, has lower sugar content than other non-dairy brands of sodium acid, contains only non-GMO ingredients, and does not contain artificial flavors, sweeteners or preservatives.
Click the picture to view details
Image source: Chobani
In July 2019, Chobani tried to pair low-fat Greek yogurt with nut butter to create a nutritious and energy-rich Chobani Greek with Nut Butter. The product not only has the advantages of high protein content and low sugar content, but the addition of nut butter also gives the product the appropriate high-quality fat. Like all Chobani products, the new range is free of GMO ingredients, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners and preservatives.
Click the picture to view details
Image source: Chobani
At the end of 2019, Chobani announced the brand's largest product line expansion in history, including mass-produced non-dairy oat drinks and non-dairy oat fermented yogurt cups, as well as Greek yogurt cups containing oats. It also launched creamer products made of creamer remaining cream during the yogurt making process, advocating the concept of sustainable development.
Image source: Chobani
McGuinness said that although the company launched a lot of non-dairy products this year, it did not affect Chobani's contribution to the dairy industry. Instead, these products offer lactose intolerance and other dairy consumers more diverse options than before.
At the same time, he also expressed his attitude towards plant-based: "Many brands launch plant-based products at the expense of eliminating dairy products, but I think this is an irresponsible or incorrect approach, and we don't think this is the true wish of consumers... Because our investigation found that most consumers are elasticists, and they are usually very tolerant of the choice of buying dairy and non-dairy products."
2, 2020: Betting on the probiotic track, hoping to revive the current status of yogurt sales in the United States
2 In 2020, Chobani has been constantly product innovation in the field of probiotics.
7, Chobani launched the plant-based probiotic beverage and Chobani Complete yogurt series offline in Probiotic products, entering the functional beverage market.
Plant Probiotic Beverage Chobani Probiotic is based on whole grain oats and juices, and adds probiotic ingredients that support digestion and immune health, as well as organic fruit and herbal extracts for improved flavor. It comes in four flavors: lemon ginger, pineapple turmeric, peach mint and cherry hibiscus. Each bottle is 14oz, containing 79-80 calories, 10-11g sugar, and priced at $3.79/bottle.
Image source: Chobani
Greek yogurt series Chobani Complete focuses on high protein and lactose-free, with 20 amino acids, of which 9 amino acids can only be obtained from food, thus solving the problem of consumers wanting to obtain high nutritional value; the product does not add excess sugar, and enriches the taste through stevia, which is divided into yogurt cups, milkshakes and bottled forms.
Image source: Chobani
. Just recently, Chobani announced that it will continue to increase its investment in the offline launch of three new yogurt series products in Probiotic products, claiming that they can improve the health of the intestinal, digestive system and immune system.
These products include the adult probiotic yogurt series and the children's probiotic yogurt series, each containing at least four probiotics that claim to improve intestinal, digestive and immune health. The products will be shipped to retailers for sale in December. Among them, Little Chobani Probiotic has also specially developed packaging bag forms suitable for children.
Image source: Chobani
Image source: Chobani
McGuinness said that although its Greek yogurt already contains some microorganisms that are beneficial to the intestine, active probiotics are currently the focus of the company's latest products. The newly launched probiotic yogurt contains billions of probiotics that benefit the body and is a unique combination of scientifically confirmed probiotic strains, including LGG, Lactobacillus acidophilus, Bifidobacteria and Lactobacillus casei, to support immune system, digestive system and gut health.
According to Nelson, retail sales of probiotic yogurt have been growing since 2019, reaching $2.07 billion in the 52 weeks ending November 28. But for the moment, supplements account for most of the sales of probiotic products. In this regard, McGuiness expressed the company's ambitions and expectations for the probiotic market.
He believes that probiotic yogurt is a rapidly developing category, so Chobani is optimistic that probiotics can revive the sales of yogurt in the United States. The development of the probiotic series is its strategic product launch. Now the company is trying to deepen its ties with probiotics and focus its next research on probiotics, hoping to use probiotics to leverage its leverage across the entire US yogurt market. McGuinness also revealed that Chobani is collaborating with universities at home and abroad to conduct clinical research to better understand the full benefits of probiotics: "You can believe that we will study probiotics in depth not only now, but in the future."
McGuinness also emphasized that Chobani's main goal is to grow the yogurt category in the long term and increase per capita yogurt consumption. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more consumers have begun to eat yogurt at home, and this year's yogurt sales have also increased, improving the continuous decline in recent years. According to Euromonitor International data, the U.S. yogurt market is expected to grow 11% this year and retail sales will exceed $10 billion. And they are also very much looking forward to the diversified application of probiotics that can help the improvement and growth of Chobani yogurt.
Image source: Google
Open hatching acceleration:
Follow me to come to the road, give you lights along the way
Chobani has always been committed to supporting the food and beverage industry. Founder Ulukaya originally created this brand to create "delicious, nutritious, natural and accessible" foods - this is also the food concept Chobani is known as "DNNA".
In 2016, Chobani announced the establishment of Chobani Food Incubator, the first food startup incubator in New York. The project aims to help food startups with bold ideas and aspire to compete with big companies, and provide entrepreneurial guidance and $25,000 in funding to improve their fragmented systems and gain a foothold.
Mcguinness said that the company learned that most food startups are usually very difficult at the beginning of their business and failed for various reasons, so Chobani is willing to provide them with financial and experience support to help them on the road to success. Chobani hopes to invite these startups into a big family, give them design classes, sales classes, supply chain classes and quality assurance classes, and is willing to share all the detours that have been taken since the start of the business. If they don't make these mistakes, they can grow faster than Chobani and have the opportunity to accelerate the curve.
Image source: Google
Chobani Incubator has been selected for an average of 6-9 startups per issue. The project lasts for 6 months, including on-site courses in New York, as well as visiting Chobani's facilities, retailers and trade shows. The course arrangement includes invited speeches, seminars, tutor rotation, field visits, etc. The incubator has been in use for more than 3 years, and has opened 6 phases of incubation projects, incubating nearly 50 food startups, and most of the options are ethnic-based specialty foods for ethnic minorities.
The operation features of Chobani incubator are:
First, it provides startup companies with equity-free capital, and incubator companies do not need to give up their shares. In other words, Chobani provides selected applicants with the right to fund and freely enter the company, and does not hold any equity or any conditions. For example, a $15,000 grant will be provided to start-up food companies during incubation, as well as dedicated office space, pilot plants and technical support.
The second is the mentor system. Incubated companies regularly meet with Chobani's mentors, including leaders in operations, finance, sales and marketing.
The third is the resource "network". In addition to investing, Chobani also provides startups with access to an expanded network of experts, founders, retailers and investors to expand their operations and help grow their businesses.
Image source: Google
2018, Chobani's third spring incubator project, and the largest Chobani Incubator project to date. A total of 9 food startups were selected, including 88 Acres handmade nutritious snacks and seed sauces, Fresh Bellies baby fruit and vegetable puree, Masienda Mexican pizza, NOKA portable nutritional shakes, Nona Lim Asian flavored soup, noodles and broth, Puffworks organic peanut butter puffs, Remedy Organics plant-based functional drinks, teaRIOT fresh tea series, and Wildway series breakfast.
Image source: Noka
In March 2020, a total of 8 companies were selected for the Chobani Spring Incubation Plan. These are ready-to-eat rice food and sauce A Dozen Cousins, alcohol-fermented edible vinegar brand American Vinegar Works, seafood sauce brand Big T’s Coastal Provisions, acid dough Bread SRSLY, ready-to-eat jam Holmes Appleasauce, seafood processed snack Pescavore, Himalayan-style sauce Sherpa Foods, and plant-based crispy slices Sonar.
Image source: East Bay Express
At present, the total amount of grants funded by Chobani has reached US$750,000, the number of tutors hired has exceeded 200, the average application received has exceeded 550, and the total number of full-time jobs added has exceeded 100.
Dairy Product Support Plan Milk Matters:
From cows to humans and then to the earth, the future of dairy farmers is related to everyone
Recently, Chobani also announced another important industrial support plan - Milk Matters. The program is specifically aimed at dairy producers, focusing on the entire dairy system, supporting everyone in the dairy industry to really change, rather than solving problems in isolation. Since its establishment, Chobani is still enthusiastic about providing the largest raw materials for animals and farms. Although Chobani employees are not farmers, they know that dairy farming is a difficult task and requires outstanding talent and hard work. In addition, the founder Ulukaya has lived on a farm in Turkey since she was a child. In the United States, he first relied on producing dairy products on the farm of his teacher's house. He always had a deep affection for the farm, and the company's name Chobani means "shepherd" in Persian.
Image source: Chobani
To make the dairy industry more prosperous in the future, Chobani worked with farmers, farm workers, elected officials and experts from the entire industry to formulate this plan.This project further strengthens Chobani’s commitment to the active transformation of the entire dairy system, starting from Chobani, from providing support to making meaningful group commitments to giving farmers freedom to farming, truly supporting the economic, environmental and social impact of fresh milk from local farms, the number one ingredient in their production process. The six pillars of the program include: environmental management, animal care, worker welfare, local procurement, dairy community investment, and dairy farm support.
When the plan was announced in 2019, Chobani said Milk Matters included cooperative partners, dairy farmers and third parties such as the American Fair Trade Association, the World Wildlife Foundation, the National Federation of Milk Producers, Cornell University, Idaho and New York state programs and community foundations to confirm the progress. Their goal is to implement 100% by 2025.
Ulukaya expressed her honor to share her vision for the future of dairy products – from cows to humans to the earth. This is a small step, but it conveys an important message: the future of dairy farmers is related to everyone.
Iron shoulders morality: Do the best things this year
Chobani not only invested a lot of money in product innovation, but also strengthened its commitment to charity, launched new initiatives to support dairy manufacturers, and continued to demonstrate its mission of "people-oriented and profit-oriented".
During the epidemic, Chobani quickly contributed a large amount of yogurt Food Bank Batch to help people get nutrition. It announced its food pantry plan in April this year, including shipping a truck of yogurt to various Food Banks every day to distribute to those in need, and has donated nearly 7 million products to date, while the brand has also donated for a long time to meet the needs of Feeding America, the largest domestic hunger relief organization in the United States.
McGuinness pointed out that Chobani and Food Bank have a long-term partnership, and the brand did not think of helping Food Bank at a specific time, and now Food Bank needs Chobani more than ever before.
In addition, Chobani is also involved in many projects as a partner in many food processing industries. For example, the Curds & Kindness program provides food for those in need in Utah and Idaho so that it is not wasted by the coronavirus, while helping farmers find buyers for their excess dairy.
Chobani understands that success and doing good deeds are not mutually exclusive. Due to its outstanding contributions, Chobani was named "Best Processor in the Dairy Products Field of 2020".
People-oriented: the best benefits to employees
For a long time, Chobani has been the leader in the field of employee relations. Since its establishment, Chobani has implemented the philosophy that companies should care about their employees first.
company offers a number of programs, such as the Chobani Rewards Program, which allows every full-time employee to share his growth in Chobani; in 2017, Chobani implemented a paid parental leave policy, providing six weeks of paid parental leave for all full-time hourly and paid employees; Chobani also plans to increase the starting salary to at least $15 per hour starting from the first quarter of 2021, which is more than twice the federal minimum wage standard, thus meeting the promise of "employees are higher than profits." In addition, for hourly workers in New York, Chobani raises the minimum starting salary to $18 per hour given the high cost of living in the region.
Profit, money, shareholders... These are the things that most companies value most today, but what are the costs of these things? Ulukaya called on people to change their past business principles, saying that prioritizing people over profit is the difference between profit and real wealth.
He believes that the reason why Chobani can develop rapidly is largely due to his insistence on his "anti-CEO strategy", first of all, emphasizing taking care of employees, helping the community operate, and being responsible to consumers.When hiring employees, Chobani looks for opportunities to hire to hire immigrants and refugees to provide them with support, such as additional training and transportation, which are actually closely related to the special experience of founder Ulukaya when she was a child. When he was in college, he was under various external pressure because of his Kurdish identity, so he was forced to leave Türkiye with 3,000 US dollars and leave his hometown to the United States. Even though he has started his business, Ulukaya is still a defender of refugee rights.
According to Ulukaya estimates, 30% of Chobani's workforce are immigrants or refugees, with people from 19 countries and speaking 16 languages. He said that actively contacting these groups is one of the best decisions they have ever made, with the benefit of attracting loyal employees and promoting innovative spirit. Beyond Chobani’s factories in New York and Idaho, Ulukaya has also established the Tent Partnership for Refugees to mobilize the private sector to improve the lives of the rapidly growing population around the world.
Ulukaya said he is very convinced of various initiatives that benefit society and the company. For companies like Chobani, it is more important than ever to “correct any injustice we see in the world” during this challenging time. In this uncertain moment, everyone needs to unite and strengthen the strength of the group the most.
Image source: Google
summary
A brand that has been established for 15 years has quickly broken down in the face of competition and has firmly ranked as the leading position in the industry. We not only marvel at its amazing achievements in business, but also admire the founder and brand’s landscape - truly people-oriented, truly open and inclusive, and truly contribute value to the industry, human society and the entire planet.
Chobani's innovation has brought wave after wave of wonderful performance to the food industry and also brought unlimited possibilities to the world's food industry. We also look forward to a stronger, richer and more diverse brand coming soon!
Finally, I used a sentence from founder Hamdi Ulukaya as a conclusion: I like innovation, I like competition. I hate my competitors. If you don't have this awareness of winning, you will not be able to enter the business world.
