Chobani Case Study

  • Ulukaya migrated to the United States

  • Chobani was founded

  • First salesperson is hired

  • Chobani recipe is prepared

  • First lot of Chobani yogourt was shipped to a supermarket

  • Chobani’s engineering team focused extensively on packaging and developed a unique design

  • Chobani was selling 200,000 cases per week

  • Chobani had become the U.S. market leader

  • Competitors respond by launching their own Greek yogourt varieties

  • Chobani purchased a plant in Twin Falls, Idaho

  • Chobani expanded internationally (Australia and Asia)

  • Ulukaya was granted the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Entrepreneurial Success of the Year Award

  • Problems started slowly plaguing Chobani

  • Chobani diversified by launching its SoHo Café in NY

  • First national TV ad

  • Chobani sponsored the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games on U.S. national television

  • The company had nearly 600,000 fans on Facebook

  • Chobani faced some quality issues

  • The company launched Chobani Flip

  • Chobani opened an international sales office in Amsterdam

  • Ulukaya was named as the Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur of the Year

  • Chobani launched its yogourt variant for kids in 2014

  • Chobani’s market valuation was estimated to be about $5 billion

  • Second TV ad

  • SuperBowl ad

  • TPG Capital, a private equity firm, granted Chobani a loan

  • “The Break You Make” ad

  • Another crisis occurred in 2015 with the launch of the Simply 100 yogourt

  • Chobani launched a beverage called Drink Chobani

  • Ulukaya and TPG Capital were still trying to bring Chobani back to profitability

  • Chobani began exporting to Mexico.

  • Ulukaya started an incubator program to train talented entrepreneurs

  • Comparative advertising

  • Ulukaya decided to make Chobani’s 2,000 employees partners

  • 1st January - Chobani’s competitors, Danone and Yoplait, took the company to court

  • Chobani partnered with McDonald’s

  • Hired a chief creative officer