By Casey Neill
Chobani has been mixing things up in the yogurt world.
The Dandenong South manufacturer took home the Growth Sector award in Food and Fibre category at the Victorian Manufacturing Hall of Fame Awards at Crown Palladium on Monday 28 May.
Managing director Peter Meek said Chobani was honoured and thrilled.
He said the company landed in Australia in 2011 through acquiring Bead Foods and its brand Gippsland Dairy.
“Over a short amount of time, Chobani went from producing 25,000 cases a week to 26-27,000 cases a day,” he said.
“We’ve had remarkable growth in a short period of time.”
Mr Meek said that market research found Chobani was the number one yogurt brand in the Australian grocery marketplace, with a 14.3 per cent share.
“Our recent launch of the product innovation Chobani Flip was a huge success,” he said.
“It brought growth to the Australian yogurt category by breaking yogurt out of breakfast and bringing it into the snacking occasion.”
The product features flavoured Greek yogurt in one section of packaging, and crunchy mix-ins in another.
“In the first three weeks of launch, $2.5 million worth of product was sold in Coles and Woolworths,” Mr Meek said.
“Chobani’s on-the-go pouch packaging was created and launched in Australia in 2013.
“We’re excited about the future for Chobani and how we can grow the category further with more innovations on the horizon in both product development and manufacturing capabilities and technologies.”
