David Brown

Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Business wars ad free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. It's August 2013, eight months since Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya opened the company's New Mexico mega plant in Twin falls, Idaho. At 1 million square feet, the plant has the capacity to ferment 11 million pounds of milk into yogurt every day. And his $450 million bet is paying off. Chobani is now the best selling yogurt brand in America. 4 out of every 10 cups of Greek yogurt sold in this country bear its name. In seven years, Ulukaya has gone from running a single mothballed plant in upstate New York to earning a dollars in annual sales. The company's growing more like a tech startup than a food manufacturer. Its scale is the physical proof of America's new appetite for healthier food. Customers are swapping traditional yogurts for the Greek version, which generally has less sugar, more protein and fewer carbs. But inside this mega plant, something has gone wrong. Something invisible. Something already in the cups, on the trucks heading to stores across the country and from there into people's homes. Chobani fans are discovering their yogurt isn't what they expected. Cup lids are bulging, bloating, as if something's growing inside. On their tongues. Their yogurt fizzes like cream soda. And then people start getting sick. Right from the beginning, Ulukaya has fostered customer loyalty on social media. Now those same feeds are full of complaints. On Facebook, Chobaniacs are reporting everything from diarrhea to whole nights spent in the hospital, the result of microbes running wild inside Chobani yogurt. The company tries to play it down. It says the contamination is just a common type of mold, one often found in dairy environments, and it only affected 5% of Chobana yogurt. But 5% of a plant aiming to push out 1 million cases a week? Well, that's a lot of yogurt and more than 200 sick customers. And online, the criticism keeps coming. I'm a loyal Chobani customer and recently stocked up. I was totally disgusted when I realized that all of them were rancid. What a horrible taste that took forever to get out of my mouth. Your delayed actions in reporting problems cost me a night in the emergency room. Severe vomiting and stabbing stomach pain. Thanks for letting us know. After my child ate five of your moldy yogurts. Eleven weeks pregnant, thought I was being healthy by eating Chobani tastes sour and bad so I only ate half. I'm worried about my unborn child. After years of adoration and superstellar growth, Chobani is now under fire. Ulukaya built this brand on one promise. Better ingredients, no shortcuts. If he can't fix this contamination and fast, that promise and the billion dollar company behind it could quickly collapse. We are live from Feddy's house.

Advertiser/Announcer

Guests are gathering around the tv even with a big storm outside.

David Brown

Are we worried about the fee?

Audible Narrator

Nope.

Advertiser/Announcer

They have Xfinity Wi Fi get reliable

Xfinity Advertiser

fiber powered Gig Wi Fi with Peacock included to stream the beautiful game this summer. Xfinity Imagine that Restrictions apply. New Gig Internet members only Speeds vary. Use of fiber coaxial cable Peacock offer for Peacock Premium with ads currently 1099amonth value activation required to access content Terms apply. Peacock must be activated within first 90 days. Manage existing subscriptions to avoid multiple charges. Third party subscriptions continue until canceled.

Capital One Advertiser

With the VentureX business card from Capital One, you earn unlimited double miles on every purchase. Plus big purchasing power means you can spend more and earn more. The Capital One Venture X Business Card what's in your wallet? Term supply. See capital1.com for details.

David Brown

From audible originals I'm david brown and this is business wars. In the last episode, Hamdi Ulukaya turned a single abandoned factory into a Greek yogurt empire, one that redefined an entire grocery aisle. By summer 2013, Chobani owned the category. But this dominance is fragile. A contamination crisis has shaken consumer trust and put Chobani's reputation on the line. Whole Foods is about to drop the brand because there are too many Greek yogurts on the market and because Chobani uses milk from cows fed on genetically modified crops. It's a blow to the company's health conscious image and the banks that funded Ulukaya's rise. They're about to demand their money back, and Chobani doesn't have it. This is episode two, Fungi and Bankruptcy. It's August 2013, and Chobani and its customers are reeling from the company's contamination crisis. At least 89 people report nausea and cramps to the Food and Drug Administration. In September, Chobani issues a voluntary recall asking grocery stores to destroy 35 varieties of its yogurt. Ulukaya apologizes on social media and promises the company is working around the clock to fix the issue. But promises aren't enough. The FDA is coming to investigate. It's September 2013, and Ulukaya has a heavy morning ahead of him. He runs his hand along the sleek stainless steel work surface and looks around at his factory. Barely nine months old. The knot in his stomach intensifies as he hands a hairnet, blue plastic overshoes, and white coat to the health and safety consultant who's come to find out what's growing inside Chobani's Idaho factory. As the consultant puts on the protective gear, Ulukaya absentmindedly fiddles with a name badge on his lab coat, hoping that whatever they find today will be easy to fix. This isn't Chobani's first run in with regulators. Last year, its original facility In New Berlin, New York, was fined $178,000 for multiple workplace safety violations, including mechanical, electrical, and chemical hazards that put employees at risk of being caught in moving machine parts and exposure to toxins. And the safety consultant is well aware of those findings. You've been here before, haven't you, Mr. Ulukaya? Well, not here exactly. It was our New York facility. They head onto the factory floor. The consultant digs through his black case for mole detecting gear. Swabs, mainly. What was the problem there? Took your eye off the ball. Ulukaya feels like a kid called the principal's office. It was the growth. The company grew so fast we went from selling 200 cases of yogurt a week to one and a half million. Sometimes you don't manage to do everything right in the beginning because you're still learning. Really. Here, look at this. The consultant points to what looks like a small circle of matted off white cat fur on one of the stainless steel surfaces. Any guesses as to what this is? Ulukaya isn't sure, but he doubts it's good mold. Mr. Ulukaya, this is mold. Ulukaya nods meekly. They walk around in silence for what seems like forever, the consultant stopping every now and again to scoop up more cat fur with tweezers and to run Q tips along surfaces and in nooks and crannies. When the consultant finally puts his swabs away, he doesn't sugarcoat it. Obviously I have to take all this back to the lab. But there's mold everywhere. It's in the yogurt. It's on the surfaces, it's in the rooms. You got a big cleanup job on your hands. Ulukaya takes a deep breath. Not the best day at the office. They're going to have to make some major changes. Although no direct link is ever confirmed between the illnesses and the yogurt, the investigation finds harmful bacteria is in yogurt samples and inside the factory itself. With more than 200 complaints received by the FDA from customers with upset stomachs, vomiting and nausea, the entire incident leaves the normally upbeat Ulukaya completely shaken. In the three months after the recall, Chobani makes sweeping changes. It hires a new chief financial officer, a head of food safety and quality, and someone to oversee supply chain and operations. Between them, they have at least 54 years of experience at major food and consumer companies. Ulukaya realizes he should have made these changes sooner. He was loyal to his original team who'd been there from the start. They were like family. But what works when you're a scrappy startup doesn't work when you're a billion dollar food giant. But while Chobani is cleaning house, it's not slowing down. Having conquered the market for yogurt cups, Chobani's marketing team has been busy dreaming up new ways to sell even more yogurt. Like the Chobani Champions tube it launched in 2013. It's aimed at kids. Two ounces of low fat Greek yogurt with fruit puree packed into a tube that doesn't require a spoon. Then there are Chobani Bites, small cups of yogurt containing no more than 100 calories. They're sold in packs of four and are intended for snacking. But no matter the product, the company's core message stays the same. Chobani yogurt is good for you. And to push that message, Chobani outspends its rivals, spending more than $30 million a year on advertising while publicly dissing competitors who don't make yogurt its way. Here's Ulukaya discussing why he thinks most mass produced yogurt misses the mark in a Chobani promotional video. We really do believe there's a problem these large corporations where they have plants, they have people, they have resources and simply refusing to make the perfect cup of yogurt. But not everyone is sold on these good for you claims. In 2013, the New Yorker reports that some critics think Chobani's marketing implies its yogurts contain no added sugar or thickening agents when they do, and that the company uses organic milk when it doesn't. Some of the cows that supply milk to Chobani are are also fed on genetically modified grain. Ulukaya counters that there is a limit on how natural Chobani can be without becoming too expensive for most people. See, that's the trouble with a holier than thou marketing strategy. No product's perfect. There's always going to be someone ready to pick holes. And when you've just had a mold crisis, well, people start looking a lot harder at the fine print. But the sugar content and the GMO grain, those are PR headaches. What's coming next is an existential threat. While Chobani's moving on from its costly mold crisis, or trying to, the banks are not. In its race to grow, Chobani has racked up around $700 million of debt. The mega factory in Idaho was built with bank loans, and the recall has made the banks that issued those loans very nervous. Now they want their money back, but despite a billion dollars in sales, Chobani doesn't have the cash to repay them. And that more than the mold crisis, more than any bad publicity is going to push the company to the brink of ruin.

Audible Narrator

Whether you're exploring your current fascinations or discovering new ones, Audible has all the stories that'll introduce you to your most fascinating self. Tap into a whole new world of heated conversations with a saucy romantasy series, become your friend group sci fi expert on the latest blockbuster book to screen adaptation, or find unexpected reveals through the exclusive episodes of of a viral true crime podcast. However you choose to listen, Audible keeps you fascinated so you can be just as fascinating all in one easy app. With plans now starting at $8.99, you'll get access to over 1 million audiobooks and podcasts, including trending bestsellers, the hottest new releases, and exclusive podcasts you won't find anywhere else. Sign up now to become a member and get any audiobook every month, plus exclusive exclusive podcasts. Plans now start at $8.99. Audible be fascinated, Be Fascinating.

Michelle Obama

As Americans, we're constantly grappling with a fundamental do we settle for the world as it is, or do we strive to create the world as it should be? Our answers tend to ebb and flow through the decades, but once, just after a war that nearly tore us apart, we came as close as we've come to answering it. And it's a story worth a closer look. I'm Michelle Obama and I'm proud to announce Higher Ground's new podcast, the Unfinished Promise. Guided by bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell and featuring my husband, Barack Obama, this limited series of uncovers the untold stories of Reconstruction, what they mean for us today, and how our past can shape the future we choose to build. The Unfinished Promise is available now on Audible or wherever you get your podcast.

David Brown

By the end of 2013, Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya is on notice. The banks that funded his company's rise are threatening to recall their loans. Ulukaya has two options, neither of which he likes. The first option is extreme. He could file for bankruptcy and try to reorganize the debt. But that will leave the company's fate in the hands of creditors and the courts. The alternative is to seek private equity investment. But the more Ulukaya investigates this option, the more worried he becomes. To get investment, he'll have to surrender some degree of control over Chobani. And he doesn't want to do that. Worse, the investors he talks to can smell blood. They know Chobani is desperate, so they make lowball offers, demanding huge chunks of equity and issuing one sided take it or leave it deals. One investor even demands a near majority stake and Ulukaya's resignation as CEO in return for their help. Ulukaya rejects offer after offer. He refuses to hand Chobani to the sharks. He just hopes somewhere out there he can find an investor he can actually work with. It's late 2013, and in his New York City apartment, Ulukaya is on yet another call with yet another investor. He feels out of control and his patience is wearing thin. Agitation rising, he paces up and down the living room, staring out through the floor to ceiling windows to the city below. Then finally, he interrupts the investor. If I'm going to die, that I am going to die one time, not every day, for the rest of my life.

Audible Narrator

My life.

David Brown

There's a moment of silence before the investor responds. Hamdi, what the hell are you going on about? I mean, the company. Chobani. I don't want to work under a private equity agreement feeling like I'm dying every single day. Hey, how about you dial down the drama a little bit? Your company's in real trouble. You need investment to survive, and that's what I'm offering you. I've seen your financial statements. I have no idea how you've managed this, but you've gone from the top of the mountain to the bottom of a hole in less than six months. No, what you're offering is death. I'd rather take my company into bankruptcy. I built Chobani. I will be the one who buries it. You'll be burying your employee. Ulukaya hangs up. His heart is thumping in his chest. He's running out of time. But he can't stomach what letting private equity into Chobani will do to his company. Ulukaya checks his watch and realizes he has another meeting across town to get to another meeting with more lawyers, more financial advisers. More investors. It's all getting to be too much. He rushes out onto the street. As he walks, he realizes he needs to take a beat. He stops off at a small park. Sitting on a bench alone in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world, he starts to cry. People walk around him, not noticing, too wrapped up in their own lives. As the tears fall down his face, Ulukaya feels grief. Grief at the thought of burying something he built from nothing. Something he gave his all to. Is he really going to do it? Is he willing to let Chobani die? Its 2014, and after weeks of dead end calls and predatory offers, Ulukaya is ready to bury Chobani. In the morning, he will file for bankruptcy. The company he built destroyed by debt. Then the phone rings. It's one of the banks. They've heard Ulukaya is about to declare bankruptcy, which isn't going to look good on their books either. So they offer to keep financing Chobani for six more months to give Ulukaya time to find a solution. Hmm, sounds like a lifeline, right? But when lenders give you just six months, well, that's not largess. It's a stress test. Banks aren't betting on your vision. They're betting on whether you can generate enough proof fast to justify not pulling the plug. Founders often think survival hinges on one big move. In reality, it's dozens of small, visible wins stacked quickly that earn lenders confidence. And that confidence is what keeps capital from running. Armed with a last minute reprieve, Ulukaya and his senior team look for ways to improve the company's health. They've already shrunk the cup size from 6 ounces down to the 5.3 ounce size sold by most competitors. But while the portions were downsized, the company kept the price the same, boosting income. But the bigger goal is growth. In the US Americans still eat far less yogurt than Canadians or Europeans. Despite chobani's success, only 37% of people recognize the brand. Almost two thirds of the country still doesn't know about Chobani yogurt, suggesting plenty of headroom to grow sales even further. And there's a massive untapped audience too.

Advertiser/Announcer

Men.

David Brown

So where do you go to reach the most new eyeballs at once? Well, of course, the biggest TV event in the world. It's February 2014, and the super bowl is being broadcast live to more than 100 million viewers in the U.S. but this year, the battle isn't just on the field. It's also in the yogurt aisle. Chobani launches its first ever super bowl spot promoting its focus on natural ingredients with an ad where a real life bear loots a store for its yogurt. The ad pushes the idea that Chobani's ingredients are so natural, even wild bears crave it. It's hard these days to find food made with only real natural ingred,

Michelle Obama

but

David Brown

at Chobani, it's the only way we know how. A cup of yogurt won't change the world, but how we make it might. But Chobani's competition isn't letting Ulukaya grab the limelight. Dannon brings in John Stamos, the Greek American star of TV sitcom Full House, to promote its Oikos yogurt. And while Yoplait doesn't run a Super bowl ad, they do release a series of commercials around the same time, going straight for the throat with a blind taste test where real people decide which Greek yogurt is best, theirs or Chobani's. And the taste testers in its ad all prefer Yoplait.

Michelle Obama

Introducing the Yoplait Greek taste off where people agree Yoplait Greek blueberry tastes better than Chobani. Blueberry with fruit in the bottom.

David Brown

I love this one.

Gracie Kanan

That one's definitely my favorite.

David Brown

That one tastes better. Oh, yo, Flame. This one's really good.

Capital One Advertiser

Sorry.

Advertiser/Announcer

It's so much better than Chobani.

David Brown

Let's have a quick reality check on this super bowl stuff. You know, oftentimes when the media talks about big super bowl ad buys, they frame it in terms of reach, how many people are watching that sort of thing. And sure, that's important. But these big advertising moments are about signaling, too. They tell competitors, retailers and investors, we belong at this level. Anyone else catch that? 2023 Temu Super Bowl AD shop Like a billionaire, you know that wasn't about selling cheap goods to football fans. It was telling Amazon and the rest of the online marketplace that Temu had arrived. But signaling alone won't dig Chobani out of its financial hole by spring 2014. Ulukaya accepts what he's been resisting for months. The only way forward is for Chobani to strike a deal with a private equity firm. And in April 2014, a deal comes together. The backer is TPG Capital, a Texas firm with interests in everything from hotels and airlines to movies and fast food. It agrees to invest $750 million in Chobani. But now that Ulukaya has invited private equity to buy into his business, things are going to change because TPG Capital wants to recoup its investment with plenty of plenty of profit. And to make that happen, it wants changes. Including at the very top,

Advertiser/Announcer

There are people you're told to trust. Lawyers, teachers, especially doctors. But what happens when you put your life in someone's hands and they betray you? The hit podcast Dr. Death is back, and this season is unlike any other. Dr. Death the Cowboy is the story of a charming neurosurgeon who rode into western towns selling a Persona of confidence and care. He wore cowboy boots in the operating room and became sought after by patients. He promised to heal them. Instead, he left a trail of broken bodies. This this season is about a doctor who was never truly held accountable for the patients whose lives he ruined. A story of greed, betrayal, and a fight for justice that will leave you questioning who to trust. Listen to Dr. Death the Cowboy wherever you get your podcasts or binge the entire series. Right now only with Audible.

Leon Naifak

I'm Leon Naifak, best known as the co creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco. I had of course heard of OnlyFans, but always with a distant and quiet skepticism. A silent judgment, you might say. Who is actually using this platform?

Advertiser/Announcer

Um, I am.

Gracie Kanan

Hi, I'm OnlyFans creator and comedian Gracie Kanan. I work from home now. I'm on OnlyFans. And in case you guys don't know what OnlyFans is, ask your husband.

Leon Naifak

My journalistic curiosity got the best of me when I found out that my own sister had started an OnlyFans account.

Gracie Kanan

I'm not his sister.

Leon Naifak

Just to clarify, it turns out a lot of what I thought I knew about OnlyFans was wrong.

David Brown

I felt like I wasted 3.5 years for something that wasn't real.

Gracie Kanan

What happens when connection comes with a price tag? Listen to OnlyFantasy wherever you get your podcasts or binge. All episodes of Only Fantasy Ad free right now only on Audible. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible app or on Apple Podcasts.

David Brown

It's April 2014, and private equity firm TPG Capital has just thrown Chobani a lifeline of $750 million. TPG believes in the brand, but the firm also believes Chobani needs new leadership. That summer, it installs one of its own executives, Kevin Burns, as Chobani's interim president. For weeks, there's speculation that Ulukaya will be pushed out as CEO and replaced by Burns. In the end, Burns becomes chief operating officer, and Ulukaya accepts that he needs help to take Chobani to the next level. The changes come quickly. Under tpg, the company doubles the size of its sales and marketing teams, recruiting experienced professionals who have worked with major retailers like Costco and Walmart. TPG's team also hunts for savings and ways to make Chobani a leaner operation. By October 2014, it has reportedly cut $10 million in costs just from negotiating better prices on materials, ingredients and insurance. It also eliminates $76 million in food waste, much of that from the Idaho plant where bad yogurt batches were being tossed. Instead of fixing the cause of the issues, Ulukaya, who spent years resisting outside investment, now realizes he should have asked for help much earlier. With Chobani back in fighting shape, the company reignites the ad wars with Dana and Yoplei. In January 2016, Chobani launches a new campaign for its low calorie Greek yogurt line, Simply 100. In one ad spot, a woman throws a cup of Dannon's Light and Fit into the garbage. As the voiceover comments, sucralose? Why? That stuff has a bit quite chlorine added to it. Another ad claims Yoplait Greek 100 contains potassium sorbate, a preservative that's also used to kill bugs. Now let's be clear about sucralose and potassium sorbate. Both are considered safe for humans in small amounts. Dannon Light and Fit contains less than 1% sucralose per cup. But Chobani's ads don't provide this context. A day after the ads air, Dannon's attorneys send a cease and desist letter to Chobani demanding they stop the campaign immediately on grounds of false advertising. A federal judge rules that Chobani's ads are misleading and orders the company to pull them. The judge says Chobani is free to promote its own ingredients, but it can't spread false claims about the competition. Chobani pulls the ads, but it doesn't fully back down. On Twitter, it declares that the conversation about how food is made in this country is only just beginning. Despite the defeat in court, the public showdowns with Yoplei and Dannon don't seem to be hurting Chobani at all. By 2016, the company says that its revenues have doubled in a year year, and with business rebounding, Ulukaya builds on his earlier efforts to give back. That's been part of Chobani's DNA from the start. He donates 10% of Chobani's profits to charity, and Ulukaya has long been committed to Hiring refugees. Back in the early days, when the New York factory was still his only plant, a local refugee center told him their clients were having a hard time finding finding work, in large part because they didn't speak English, just like Ulukaya when he first came to America. So he started hiring them. And a year earlier, on a visit to Greece in 2015, he saw Europe's refugee crisis firsthand. He felt an immediate affinity with those seeking a new life. His own situation as an immigrant from Turkey wasn't so different. And what really frustrated him was how slow and bureaucratic the aid efforts seemed. Ulukaya thought the approach of the UN and Greece was hopelessly outdated, a growing problem that needed a hack, and that the best people to hack it are business people. So he did it himself. He established Tent, a foundation that channels financial aid and finds new ways to support refugees. He also pledged to give half his personal fortune to refugee causes and to hire even more refugees at his factories. In January 2016, shortly after the Simply 100 ads launch, he heads to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the annual international gathering of government and business leaders. There, Ulukaya pitches these leaders on getting the private sector more involved. He wants IKEA to supply shelters, LinkedIn to match refugee skills with employers, and MasterCard to offer a debit card that refugees can use for shopping. Within two years, more than 80 brands sign on to tint. And Ulukaya is not done either. In April 2016, he makes a surprise announcement for Chobani's roughly 2,000 employees. He's giving his workers 10% of the company's stock shares. They can cash in when the company is sold or goes public. His tearful staff are delighted. When it comes to giving employees equity, it's never okay. It's seldom about pure generosity. When people have a stake, well, they start to think like owners, watching costs, catching errors, protecting the brand. But this only works if the culture supports it. The smartest founders use equity as a message to employees that we're building something together here, and your contribution matters to the outcome. By 2017, Chobani is generating almost $2 billion a year in sales. It sought to challenge the giants of the yogurt industry. Now it's become one of those giants. But behind the impressive numbers, there's trouble. Across the nation, sales of Greek yogurt are plateauing. The market saturated, and that means the company needs to evolve if it wants to keep growing. It launches Smooth, a line of five flavored yogurts that promises to be smoother and lighter. Than Chobani's original formula. It's the kind of sweeter, thinner yogurt Ulukaya once turned his nose up at. And then Chobani drops the word Greek from its cups. Both moves are designed to help the company expand beyond its base and appeal to Americans who don't yet eat Chobani. Chobani is also about to part ways with private equity firm TPG Capital. TPG's investment saved the company from collapse four years ago. Now Chobani is back on its feet. It has repaid the $750 million loan, restructured into a better run business and rekindled its growth. The partnership worked, but it's run its course. With TPG out, Chobani brings in a new investor, a Canadian pension fund that buys a 20% stake for Ulukaya. It's a welcome change. A pension fund is more likely to think long term about its investments. Even more than that, the deal actually increases Ulukaya's personal stake in Chobani, giving him greater control over the country. Company's future now he faces a new challenge how to keep Chobani growing. The company is no longer a young upstart. It's now the dominant force in American yogurt. But to keep growing, the company needs to move beyond yogurt, especially as sales across the entire dairy category start to decline. Consumer behavior is changing. Americans are falling out of love with dairy and switching to alternatives on health and animal welfare grounds. So Chobani chases the trend by launching a plant based oat yogurt. Time pressed Americans are also increasingly eating breakfast on the move. They don't have time to sit down and eat yogurt with a spoon. So Chobani tries to reach the grab and go crowd by producing oat milk, probiotic drinks and both dairy and plant based creamers. These new product lines also serve another purpose to boost Chobani's appeal to investors. And that matters because now that Chobani is back on its feet, Ulukaya is looking to take the company public. But he's about to find out that Wall street isn't so sweet on what he's offering. Rumors swirl that the company is pitching itself to Wall street as a business that's worth $10 billion. But analysts aren't so sure. To justify that price, Chobani would need to grow its revenue fourfold in just four years. With stock analysts skeptical, it's not clear why, whether or not Chobani will actually go public. And the process reveals something uncomfortable. Chobani's finances aren't as strong as the brand's success suggests. Although sales are growing, the company's actually losing money. One reason is that its costs are increasing. Labor commodities like milk and freight have become a lot more expensive, and those losses mean few investors are willing to swallow Chobani's $10 billion valuation. Some also wonder if Chobani has already reached the limits of how much yogurt it can sell. In September 2022, after multiple delays, Chobani withdraws its IPO, blaming current market conditions and geopolitics. But the underlying message seems clear. Chobani wasn't able to answer Wall Street's concerns about the company's ability to grow. So Ulukaya begins focusing on turning Chobani into a brand that's bigger than yogurt. He hires Tarkan Gurkhan, PepsiCo's former global head of mergers and acquisitions, and starts buying companies in 20. In 2023, Chobani acquires La Colombe, a maker of ready to drink cold brewed coffees, for $900 million. The following year, Ulukaya personally buys San Francisco craft brewer Anchor Brewing. And the timing helps. The company benefits from another shift in consumer trends, this time back in Chobani's favor. Rising demand for protein in food and drink products products has put dairy back on the menu enough to give Chobani the confidence to start building a new dairy plant in New York State, one that will dwarf its facility in Idaho when it's completed in 2027. This is the reality of business. It's like the red Queen from Alice in Wonderland. To stay where you are, you need to keep running, to keep growing. The moment you stop, you slip behind. That's what happened to the yogurt brands Chobani leapfrogged on its way up. Whatever happens next, Ulukaya continues to pursue the same theme, the idea that's been part of Chobani's DNA right from the start. Community and better food. While some might say this is all lip service, ultimately Lukaya has genuinely pushed the idea of capitalism with a conscience. He's made plenty of mistakes along the way growing too quickly, not hiring the right expertise soon enough, not asking for help before he hit crises like the mold and twin falls. But when he first walked into that mothballed yogurt facility back in New Berlin, he saw something the spreadsheets didn't show that the numbers suggesting the factory couldn't be profitable didn't tell the full story. Because Ulukaya didn't just see it as a building he saw a place where people had built their lives, a place that earned money but also brought people together. And when Kraft closed it, it wasn't just giving up on yogurt, it was giving up on those people. Ulukaya proved the spreadsheets wrong, and whether Chobani ever ends up worth 10 billion or not, well, that's the part of the story that sticks. Follow Business wars on the Audible app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to all episodes of Business wars ad free by joining Audible from Audible Originals. This is Episode two of Chobani, the Yogurt that Ate America for Business Wars. A quick note about the recreations you've been hearing in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said at the time. Those scenes are dramatizations, but they're based on research. And if you'd like to know more about Chobani, we recommend the New Yorker article Just Add Sugar by Rebecca Mead and episode 464 of the podcast How I Built this with Guy Raz. I'm your host, David Brown. Stephanie Power of Yellow Ant wrote this story. Our senior producers are Jenny Blum and Emily Frost. Our producer is Tristan Donovan of Yellow Ant. Karen Lowe is our producer Emeritus. Our managing producer is Destination Blalock. Research by Marina Watson Fact checking by Gabrielle Drollet Sound design by Kyle Randall Executive Producer for Audible Jenny Lauer Beckman, Head of Creative Development at Audible Kate Navin, head of Audible Originals North America Marshall Louie, Chief Content Officer Rachel Giazza Copyright 2026 by Audible Originals, LLC Sound Recording Copyright 2026 My Audible Originals, LLC.