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At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

nytimes.com

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Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#11

Post by BlackjackCF »

r00fus wrote: post #9
amalag wrote: post #3

>TPG has warrants to buy 20 percent or more of Chobani’s shares, depending on targets set in the original deal it struck. But that percentage would now be calculated from the 90 percent of the remaining shares, after the 10 percent given to the employees, essentially diluting TPG’s potential stake. How did that happen? How would the 10 percent given to the employees not be included in the 20% of the TPG contract?

> How did that happen? How would the 10 percent given to the employees not be included in the 20% of the TPG contract? From TFA: "He said that giving his employees a stake in the company’s success was among the terms he demanded when the deal with TPG was struck."

God damn. What a great employer and a decent human being. This is how businesses should be run.

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#12

Post by erehweb »

DanFeldman wrote: post #10
dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

Logistics & Supply chain, QA and inspections, Sales and account operations, marketing, finance, corporate dev/biz dev. And at Chobani's scale, middle management for all of these categories. I can see 2000 people being realistic.

To this point, Chobani had quality control issues a couple of years ago. So that's definitely an area that requires some people. And the marketing / PR folks to make it no longer top-of-mind for most people.

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#13

Post by awesomerobot »

dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

You'd be shocked by how many employees some silicon valley startups have — and they're not even shipping physical products. 2000 is fairly reasonable for a national food product company.

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#14

Post by dimino »

cloudjacker wrote: post #6
dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

Do things that don't scale. Thats what working capital is for.

Is "hire many people" one of the things that falls under "things that don't scale"? I kind of thought that meant more like the opposite.

In any event, I wasn't maligning Chobani, just expressing my surprise.

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#15

Post by djrogers »

dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

How many employees do you think it would take to produce a product that sits on nearly every shelf in 10-20,000 grocery stores across the US?

And how many employees would it take to distribute, market, package, ship, sell, QC, etc?

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#16

Post by overcast »

astrange wrote: post #7
dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

It must've taken a big marketing team to invent calling sugar "evaporated cane juice" in the list of ingredients.

Hand pressed by organic virgins.

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#17

Post by 6stringmerc »

dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

Years ago, when I saw my company had The Blue Man Group on the books as a client and they employed ~400 people I was quite surprised. Then I got to thinking about the operation, the numerous business avenues of rights management, the touring, and then it started to make sense. Personally I'd rather work for a company that can afford to expand along with demand and maintain quality rather than siphon off cash and stuff it in an investor's pocket based on short-term mentalities.

Re: At Chobani, Now It’s Not Just the Yogurt That’s Rich

#19

Post by wmblaettler »

dimino wrote: post #4

Congrats, but I'm always blown away at the size of some companies. Do you really need 2000 people to make yogurt? Airplanes are big complex systems, so I get that, but yogurt? Edit: Apparently I rubbed some folks the wrong way. I didn't mean to think I could do better, I just meant it's a wild thought that something so "simple" as yogurt could require so many people to make. You guys probably know about "I, Pencil",…

Chobani is in several global markets and has multiple large-scale plants. 80% of their workforce are plant floor workers. I know this as I helped build an enterprise social platform for them a few years ago with a partner agency. [1]

[1] http://www.bigspaceship.com/case-study/chobani-home/

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