Growing a Start-Up Without Outside Investors

The Idea: The author’s passion for the yogurt of his boyhood in Turkey—and the serendipitous availability of an old yogurt factory in upstate New York—combined to produce Chobani. Within three years it was the top-selling U.S. brand.

I’ve always loved yogurt—the thick kind I grew up eating in Turkey, where my mother made it from scratch on our family’s dairy farm. When I moved to the United States, in 1994, I found American yogurt to be disgusting—too sugary and watery. If I wanted yogurt, I usually made it myself at home. So when I came across a piece of junk mail advertising a fully equipped yogurt factory for sale, in March 2005, I was curious. The factory was about 65 miles west of the feta cheese company, Euphrates, that I’d started in upstate New York a few years earlier. In 2005 Euphrates had fewer than 40 employees and about $2 million in sales; it was barely breaking even.

Kraft owned the yogurt factory, and it had decided to get out of the yogurt business. The advertisement showed some photographs of the building, which had been constructed in 1920 and appeared to be in rough shape. On a whim, I called the broker and arranged to drive over the next morning to take a look.

The factory was a sad place, sort of like a cemetery, in a very small town. Fifty-five employees were preparing to shut it down. A lot of equipment was included, but it was old. The best thing about the place was the price: less than $1 million. Some of the individual machines would cost more than that if purchased new.

On the drive home I called my attorney, who is my main business adviser. I told him I wanted to buy the factory. He thought it was a terrible idea. He had three good arguments: First, because I’d be buying it “as is,” I really had no idea how well it would function. Second, Kraft is a pretty successful company, and if it was giving up on this facility, this town, and the yogurt industry, maybe it knew something I didn’t. Third, and maybe the strongest objection, where was I going to get that kind of money? He was right: At that point, I had nowhere near enough money for such a big purchase.

But as it turned out, I was able to borrow the money to buy the factory—and after Chobani hit the market, I financed our growth through further bank loans and reinvested profits. This is a crucial piece of the Chobani story. Our ability to grow without reliance on external investors—the venture capitalists, private equity types, strategic partners, and potential acquirers who’ve offered us money since we launched—was vital to our success. Today Chobani is a $1 billion business, and I remain the sole owner. That means I can run the company the way I choose—and plan for its future without pressure from outsiders.

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