The popular Greek yogurt brand, Chobani, is going to build a $1.2 billion facility in Rome, New York — something the company’s CEO would have never imagined 20 years ago.
Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder and CEO of Chobani, grew up on a Kurdish dairy farm in Turkey and immigrated to the United States in the 1990s before eventually opening a small feta cheese factory in Fulton County. One day, in that feta cheese factory, everything changed.
“I saw a paper like this,” Ulukaya explained, "… a fully equipped yogurt plant for sale. It came in the junk mail.”
Like most junk mail, that piece of paper ended up in the trash. Thankfully, he wasn’t afraid to start digging.
“Twenty minutes later, I picked it back up, for some reason. I don’t know why,” Ulukaya recalled. “And I looked at it, and now it’s dirty with some stuff on it, but I called the number.”
He didn’t know it yet, but when he called that number, a billion-dollar dream was beginning to take form. The defunct yogurt factory for sale would soon become Chobani. Ulukaya said it took a lot to get started, though.
“I don’t have anything, I don’t have money, my English is broken, my car is not that great outside, and I have no idea what I’m going to do next,” Ulukaya said.
Next, he got to work.
“Where everybody saw broken walls, old equipment … I saw the discipline, I saw the spirit,” Ulukaya said. “And it reminded me of where I grew up.”
He and a small team painted the walls and got the place up and running. Two years later, they launched Chobani. Three years after that, they reached $1 billion in sales and were producing the best-selling Greek yogurt in the United States.
“I’m so honored ... that I can be a part of this,” Ulukaya said, "and that this state and this country has been so good to me.”
About 30% of Chobani’s workforce is made up of immigrants, and with the new plant coming to Rome bringing more than 1,000 new jobs to the region, Ulukaya plans on growing that percentage. He wants to help create opportunities for people who came to America just like him.
“I left Turkey at the age of 22 and in desperation, but I could be safe, and be myself, find myself, and discover myself a build a family and be part of this amazing community,” Ulukaya said. “That’s something that I can give back to the state, and the country, and hopefully humanity.”
There was a groundbreaking ceremony for Chobani’s new Rome facility on Tuesday. There is no set date yet on when construction will be completed.