What is Chobani?
A privately held Greek yogurt, dairy, coffee, and better-for-you food company.
- Category
- Food and beverage
- Headquarters
- New York, NY
- Founded
- 2005
- Employees
- 2,000+
- Total funding
- $650M disclosed equity
- Status
- Private; ~$20B reported valuation
What is Chobani?
Chobani is a privately held U.S. food company best known for popularizing Greek yogurt and expanding into creamers, oat drinks, ready-to-drink coffee, and adjacent wellness foods.
Chobani was founded by Hamdi Ulukaya in 2005 after he bought a shuttered yogurt plant in upstate New York. The company built a national brand around high-protein Greek yogurt, then widened the portfolio into drinks, dairy creamers, oat-based products, La Colombe coffee, and newer high-protein formats.
The latest public reporting points to scale well beyond a niche dairy brand: Forbes and DealBook-linked reports said Chobani expected about $3.8 billion in 2025 net sales and a roughly $20 billion valuation after a $650 million equity raise. Chobani remains private, so those figures are reported estimates rather than audited public-company disclosures.
Operationally, Chobani is a manufacturing-heavy company with major hubs in New York, Idaho, Philadelphia through La Colombe, and international operations such as Australia. For sellers, it behaves more like a mature CPG platform than a venture startup: procurement, supply chain, retail distribution, foodservice, and brand marketing are the center of gravity.
What does Chobani offer?
Chobani sells dairy and plant-based consumer products across grocery, convenience, foodservice, and direct brand channels.
- Greek yogurt cups and multipacks· Dairy
- High-protein yogurt· Dairy
- Coffee creamers· Dairy
- Oat drinks and oat-based products· Plant-based
- La Colombe ready-to-drink coffee· Coffee
- Foodservice yogurt and ingredients· Foodservice
How does Chobani make money?
Chobani makes money by manufacturing branded food and beverage products and selling them through retail, foodservice, cafe, and distribution channels.
The core model is CPG: Chobani earns gross margin on yogurt, creamers, oat drinks, and coffee products sold through grocers, mass retail, club, convenience, and foodservice. La Colombe adds ready-to-drink coffee, wholesale coffee, and cafe revenue, giving Chobani another platform in refrigerated beverages and premium coffee.
Public pricing is mostly retail-channel dependent. Chobani has announced suggested retail prices such as $3.99 for 24-ounce creamers at launch, while a 2026 limited-time creamer relaunch was reported at a $6.09 suggested retail price. Those are not contract prices; large retailers, distributors, and foodservice customers negotiate promotions, slotting, volume, and freight.
Growth is driven by household penetration, new refrigerated beverage capacity, high-protein demand, foodservice distribution, and manufacturing utilization. The 2025 financing was explicitly linked in reports to expanding production in upstate New York and Idaho, which makes plant automation, packaging, logistics, quality, and procurement important buying centers.
Who leads Chobani?
Chobani is led by founder, CEO, and chair Hamdi Ulukaya, with a senior executive team spanning finance, people, communications, and operations.
- Hamdi UlukayaFounder, Chief Executive Officer and ChairFounder; since 2005Built Chobani from an upstate New York plant into the No. 1 U.S. Greek yogurt brand and remains the central owner-operator.
- Tarkan GürkanChief Financial OfficerExecutive leadership appointment announced 2022Finance leader tied to Chobani's next phase of growth and capital planning.
- Shari EatonChief People OfficerJoined 2022Leads people operations and culture after prior senior roles at Peloton.
- Ben BoydChief Communications OfficerAppointed 2024Runs communications, media relations, impact communications, and issues management.
How do you contact Chobani's leadership?
Chobani does not publish verified personal executive email addresses. Use the public aliases below, or route executive correspondence through media, careers, privacy, or the New Berlin general counsel mailing address.
Personal format not verified; use public aliases such as media@chobani.com and careers@chobani.comHow much funding has Chobani raised?
Chobani is not a VC-style startup; its most visible recent financing is a reported $650 million equity raise in 2025 at a roughly $20 billion valuation.
Chobani's capital history is mostly founder-led operating growth, debt, strategic ownership, and large acquisitions rather than a clean seed-to-Series ladder. The company filed for an IPO in 2021, later withdrew the offering, and stayed private while expanding from yogurt into a broader refrigerated food and beverage platform.
Major capital events include the original 2005 purchase of the New Berlin yogurt plant, the 2021 S-1 process that discussed IPO proceeds and restructuring, the $900 million La Colombe acquisition in 2023, and the 2025 $650 million equity raise reported at a $20 billion valuation. The 2025 raise was reported to support manufacturing expansion in Rome, New York and Twin Falls, Idaho.
Seller signal: Chobani has mature purchasing power and a capex-heavy agenda. The best-budgeted opportunities are likely in manufacturing automation, plant maintenance, quality, cold-chain logistics, ERP/finance, retail execution, trade promotion, and consumer analytics rather than generic startup software.
How did Chobani get here?
Chobani grew from a New York yogurt plant into a multi-category food and beverage company through brand expansion, acquisitions, and manufacturing investment.
- 2005Founded by Hamdi UlukayaUlukaya bought a shuttered yogurt plant in New Berlin, New York and built Agro Farma, later Chobani.
- 2012Billion-dollar brand milestoneChobani reached reported billion-dollar annual sales within roughly five years of first cup sales.
- 2021IPO filingChobani filed an S-1 for a Nasdaq IPO under the planned ticker CHO, then later withdrew.
- 2023La Colombe acquisitionChobani acquired coffee company La Colombe for a reported $900 million.
- 2025Chobani House announcedChobani announced a new 120,000-square-foot headquarters at 360 Bowery in New York.
- 2025$650M reported equity raiseReports said the financing valued Chobani at roughly $20 billion and supported plant expansion.
Who are Chobani's competitors?
Chobani competes with major yogurt, dairy, coffee, and plant-based beverage brands.
- DanoneGlobal dairy and plant-based owner of Activia, Oikos, Silk, and International Delight; broader multinational scale.
- General MillsOwns Yoplait and competes in mainstream yogurt with a larger packaged-food portfolio.
- FageGreek-yogurt specialist with a premium strained-yogurt position.
- OatlyPlant-based oat drink specialist competing with Chobani's oat and coffee-adjacent beverage products.
- Stonyfield OrganicOrganic yogurt brand competing on natural and family-oriented dairy positioning.
- StarbucksCoffee retail and ready-to-drink ecosystem that overlaps with La Colombe in premium coffee occasions.
Chobani — frequently asked questions
