How a Turkish immigrant turned an abandoned Kraft factory into Chobani
In 2005, Hamdi Ulukaya bought a shuttered Kraft plant in upstate New York with no investors and no plan, then launched a yogurt company that would become Chobani.
The factory was empty, outdated, and losing money. He bought it anyway. In 2005, he stood in South Edmeston, New York, and signed the papers.
Kraft had shut the plant down, leaving an empty building that was outdated and losing money. Most people would have driven right past it. Ulukaya was a Turkish immigrant with no investors waiting and no polished plan.
The unlikely purchase
He bought the place anyway. Then he started a yogurt company inside it as workers brought the old plant back to life.
Chobani is born
By 2007, yogurt was coming off those lines under a new name. That empty Kraft factory, the biggest gamble of Ulukaya's life, became the place where Chobani began.
