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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

#51

Post by ghaff »

emmelaich wrote: post #45
wmblaettler wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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/

Yes, in Australia we have a very good dairy industry (milk, cheese, yoghurt ...) and I was surprised to see lots of Chobani on the shelf. We already had about four local and NZ manufacturers of yoghurt, including 'traditional' or 'Greek style'. I wonder if it's a bubble or whether they can compete. It doesn't taste much different to the existing products, and costs more.

>It doesn't taste much different to the existing products, and costs more.

That's pretty typical of branded product. And sometimes the difference is worth it and sometimes not.

The broader thing that I find pretty impressive is how Greek-style (i.e. thicker) yogurt has gone from this thing I could pickup at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods to being the dominant yogurt style at Walmart in just a few years.

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

#52

Post by gech »

morgante wrote: post #40
mjfern wrote: post #31

It's great to see a founder CEO (Hamdi Ulukaya) making a bold ethical move like this to support his employees. It's not flashy or earth shaking, but it's very real and it will definitely change many lives for the better. This story reminds me tangentially of the time when Hewlett and Packard, when faced with a downturn at HP, decided to cut pay across the board so the company could avoid layoffs. Once HP recovered, I…

> This story reminds me tangentially of the time when Hewlett and Packard, when faced with a downturn at HP, decided to cut pay across the board so the company could avoid layoffs. It mystifies me that cutting pay instead of getting rid of deadweight is seen as noble or honorable. If I were working at HP, I would have quit the second they decided to cut my pay just so they could avoid needed firings.

Are you a wolf, or a sheep?

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

#53

Post by treehau5 »

ghaff wrote: post #51
emmelaich wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, in Australia we have a very good dairy industry (milk, cheese, yoghurt ...) and I was surprised to see lots of Chobani on the shelf. We already had about four local and NZ manufacturers of yoghurt, including 'traditional' or 'Greek style'. I wonder if it's a bubble or whether they can compete. It doesn't taste much different to the existing products, and costs more.

>It doesn't taste much different to the existing products, and costs more. That's pretty typical of branded product. And sometimes the difference is worth it and sometimes not. The broader thing that I find pretty impressive is how Greek-style (i.e. thicker) yogurt has gone from this thing I could pickup at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods to being the dominant yogurt style at Walmart in just a few years.

Buyer beware however, I'd say 90% of the stuff out there is rubbish. Like you said it is "greek style" but it's thicker only as a result of adding thickening agents, and a far-cry of actual authentic greek yogurt, Dannon and Yoplait being the biggest offenders. Chobani is close, but I would say Fage is the absolute best.

Greek yogurt should be hardly sweet, extremely tart, and so thick it almost makes you thirsty -- as you can see where I am going, not something that fits the pallet that giant food has crafted for the average american (I.e fill everything with sugar) which is why I think Chobani has beaten Fage in the US, beacause of it's smoother consistency and slightly sweeter taste.

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

#54

Post by mrbgty »

mjfern wrote: post #31

It's great to see a founder CEO (Hamdi Ulukaya) making a bold ethical move like this to support his employees. It's not flashy or earth shaking, but it's very real and it will definitely change many lives for the better. This story reminds me tangentially of the time when Hewlett and Packard, when faced with a downturn at HP, decided to cut pay across the board so the company could avoid layoffs. Once HP recovered, I…

"Once HP recovered, I'm assuming they reinstated previous salary levels and then some."

No way this happened.

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

#55

Post by BinaryIdiot »

potatolicious wrote: post #42
BinaryIdiot wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a large number of people are involved in the manufacturing and distribution of a physical good. Manufacturing per product is typically limited to few locations (likely 1 location for this company as far as I can tell). Yeah it's a lot of work but I'm curious as to what their make-up is as far as employees go. Reading up on a lot of logistics it seems like they could get away with 1,000 so I'm curious as to what tho…

Yogurt (or any manufactured food product, really) is surprisingly high in complexity... I'll echo the GP post - I'm a bit surprised at the amount of surprise. Maybe we need to be doing a better job of educating people about these things (or conversely, maybe we need to do a better job of sticking our heads outside our respective bubbles). Obviously cars and yogurt are not directly comparable, but I'd wager they have…

> I'll echo the GP post - I'm a bit surprised at the amount of surprise. Maybe we need to be doing a better job of educating people about these things (or conversely, maybe we need to do a better job of sticking our heads outside our respective bubbles).

I get everything you're saying and as I said I am not in the same industry but I've taken cursory looks and 2,000 still seems high to me. But I'm not saying they're doing it wrong and I have to be right, etc; I would just love a breakdown to get an idea for how they manage / use so many employees.

For instance Nabisco has a large factory that has 1,200 employees that handles the making, packaging and shipping out of about 320 million pounds of snack food a year. Granted they're a crazy huge company so not comparable but it shows what 1,200 people can do to some degree in food manufacturing but obviously there are huge differences there. It's hard to find a company of similar market size that I actually know of to compare employee counts.

Do you have any references for employee utilization / counts at various food manufacturers / distributors?

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

#56

Post by superuser2 »

rhc2104 wrote: post #37
andrewfong wrote: post #35

> But unlike many of those tech companies, Mr. Ulukaya is giving his employees a piece of the company after its value is firmly established. I wonder how they set this up tax-wise. Stock grants are income, even before you sell. In tech companies, you typically get the stock when it's super cheap, so the tax hit is minimal. But here, since the value's pretty firmly established, the employee is potentially on the hook…

It sounds like the employees don't actually get the shares until a liquidity event. (This is how RSUs work at startups.)

The liquidity event for employees is months to years after the IPO (lockup period).

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

#58

Post by 3327 »

Hamdi is an example ceo,

Here is some background information - don't grt me wrong the move is great but as any great move there are a few more implications:

1) tpg loaned 750mn to bail out idaho plant to Ulukaya.

2) as part of the deal tpg has warrants against hamdi's own stock.

3) tpg try to oust hamdi once, the gidt cements his role as a ceo as employee love and support to him is boosted.

4) tpg's warrants are diluted since hamdi gave out 10% of his own stock. Essentially now the options can address 90% of hamdi's stock.

AGain a great chess move.

Your move tpg.

Edir: typos due to mobile.

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

#59

Post by mattmanser »

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",…

Go work for a week in a warehouse or a factory and you'll understand.

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

#60

Post by ghaff »

treehau5 wrote: post #53
ghaff wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It doesn't taste much different to the existing products, and costs more. That's pretty typical of branded product. And sometimes the difference is worth it and sometimes not. The broader thing that I find pretty impressive is how Greek-style (i.e. thicker) yogurt has gone from this thing I could pickup at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods to being the dominant yogurt style at Walmart in just a few years.

Buyer beware however, I'd say 90% of the stuff out there is rubbish. Like you said it is "greek style" but it's thicker only as a result of adding thickening agents, and a far-cry of actual authentic greek yogurt, Dannon and Yoplait being the biggest offenders. Chobani is close, but I would say Fage is the absolute best. Greek yogurt should be hardly sweet, extremely tart, and so thick it almost makes you thirsty --…

I guess I'm not much of a connoisseur of Greek yogurt. Admittedly I eat yogurt now and then, and even make it at home sometimes, but I'm not a huge consumer. But I don't find huge differences which maybe just means I don't actually have much of a taste for authentic versions. When Fage was about the only thing available, I bought it at Trader Joe's. Now I mostly buy Chobani but buy store brands as well.
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