By CASEY NEILL
CHOBANI set up its Australian manufacturing headquarters in Hammond Road, Dandenong South, in late 2012.
They invested $36 million and constructed the new plant within just nine months.
It can produce 600 pots of yogurt per minute using the unique Chobani straining method, which removes lactose and produces a low-fat, high-protein product.
Awards chairman James Sturgess said Chobani acquired well-established Dandenong manufacturer Bead Foods to enter the Australian market
“The two things that Bead Foods were best known for were that they made choc tops, which many of us have enjoyed in picture theatres during our lifetime, and Gippsland Dairy, which was a high quality producer of premium yogurt,” he said.
These factors and more earned Chobani the Greater Dandenong Chamber of Commerce 2013 Manufacturing Award.
Chobani managing director Peter Meek said the factory had increased its employees by 50 per cent since it opened.
“And we’ve got the capacity to have quite a significant growth,” he said.
The Chobani brand went national in September 2012 and there are plans for expansion into Singapore, Malaysia and parts of China. A turnover in excess of $100 million is Mr Meek’s next goal.
“This way of making yogurt existed 1000 years ago,” Mr Meek said.
“We’ve just reintroduced it.
“I’ve been in dairy all my life.
“My wife reckons there’s milk running through my veins.”
Mr Sturgess said Chobani’s position in Dandenong gave it great access to one of its main ingredients – fresh milk.
The America-based company’s ‘Yogurt Master’ Mustafa taught Australian staff ’the Chobani way’ to work with it.
“He’s written six pages in his diary about yogurt every day for the past 40 years,” Mr Meek said.
“Pretty much all he eats is yogurt and green tea and he looks like a superstar.”
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya in 2005 stumbled upon a classified ad for a yogurt plant Kraft had closed, and bought it.
“His father had a long history in cheese and dairy products in Turkey, and it was Hamdi’s skills to bring such techniques to his own production,” he said.
“The first cup of Chobani hit the shelves 18 months later.”
Mr Ulukaya remains the company’s sole owner and has grown Chobani to be America’s number one yogurt brand.
“The future is bright for this company by continuing to increase its market share to develop further ranges in relation to cheeses,” Mr Sturgess said.
Chobani was also nominated for the Innovation, Employment, Service Excellence, Corporate and Social Responsibility and Premier Regional Business awards.
