Chobani Greek-Yogurt Maker at $5 Billion, Founder Interview

Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukay interview: every entrepreneur, that has ambition to succeed big, should watch this.

Chobani seeks to raise capital at valuation of $5 billion according to The Wall Street Journal. The yogurt brand is considering either selling a stake to private investors/strategic partners or moving toward an IPO for an equity sale of 15% stake. They plan to use the proceeds for international expansions.

Hamdi Ulukaya, founder of Chobani, has built over $1 billion revenue just in 6 years since he started by acquiring the plant abandoned by Kraft in 2007. It is a real story.

According to Christopher Steiner, contributor to Forbes, he has focused on five main things:

#1. Keep your product simple. Know what you do and do it better than anybody.

#2. Invest in your core. For us, that’s our yogurt plant…

#3. When you market your business, know that can fool almost nobody anymore. There is too much information available to anybody who wants it. Be real…

#4. Focus on profit. I run my business like a mom and pop store. Cash is everything. Without it you can’t increase production and it’s hard to be innovative.

#5. Lead as an example. If you make yogurt, go to the plant. Work with your people; if you want people to work on Sunday, be there next to them.

Whole Foods Phase Out Chobani, Danone

Chobani, a yogurt brand and producer, has been a huge success story: over $1 billion in 2013 revenue

Whole Foods decided to no longer sell Chobani yogurt in Dec. 2013. While the reason was not GMO-free entirely as reported initially on WSJ, Whole Foods wanted to make room for product choices that aren’t available on the market: such as its own private label products and Stonyfield Greek yogurt.

American yogurt market was estimated at $7.6 billion, and the Greek segment would account for 50%+ of the market. In the Greek yogurt market, Chobani has had almost 50% share, followed by Danone‘s 20%.