ISTANBUL
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya was also awarded the Ernst & Young national entrepreneur of the year 2012 overall award, chosen from a group of 10 separate category finalists. He honored for creating a nutritional trend while harnessing his entrepreneurial vision to build a start-up into the number one yogurt brand in America.
The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award is the country's most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs. The award encourages entrepreneurial activity and recognizes leaders and visionaries who demonstrate innovation, financial success and personal commitment as they create and build world-class businesses.
Ulukaya was recognized for bringing together his passion and entrepreneurial vision to turn a start-up yogurt company into a catalyst for America's yogurt boom that has since changed the way U.S. consumers think about and eat yogurt, ultimately initiating a health revolution.
He was honored at the Entrepreneur Of The Year gala, the culminating event of the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum in Palm Springs, Calif. The Forum is the nation's premier gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies. Awards were given in nine additional categories. All Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year Award winners were selected by an independent panel of judges from 244 regional award recipients.
After leaving his family's dairy business in Turkey to pursue higher education in the United States, Ulukaya recognized a gap in America's dairy offerings and the opportunity to tap a relatively untouched market: Yogurt. Instinctively following his gut, he purchased an old Kraft yogurt plant in 2005 with the goal of bringing superior products to the U.S. market. He spent his days endlessly perfecting a yogurt recipe that would eventually, in 2007, come to be known as Chobani, or "shepherd" in Turkish.
In less than four years, Ulukaya took Chobani's sales from $50 million to almost $700 million per year. While other competitors focus largely on mass marketing and TV advertising, Ulukaya has kept his brand different from the rest. He has instead taken a more creative, grassroots approach, capitalizing on social media and word of mouth marketing to build a cult following around the brand. With almost 600,000 Facebook fans, Chobani prides itself on being engaged and connected with its growing community.
