Chobani Yogurt’s Hamdi Ulukaya, the new World Entrepreneur of the Year, likened entrepreneurship to a quest, “like crossing the ocean or climbing Mount Everest: When you put yourself through this journey, you find out who you really are.”

New ‘World Entrepreneur’ has a beef with Canada

Rick Spence | 13/06/08 | Last Updated: 13/06/10 11:33 AM ET

Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of New York State yogurt producer Chobani Inc., was named World Entrepreneur of the Year 2013.

MONTE CARLO — The newly selected World Entrepreneur of the Year has a problem. And it’s Canada.

At a posh Monaco banquet hall on June 8 overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, Hamdi Ulukaya, founder and CEO of New York State yogurt producer Chobani Inc., was named World Entrepreneur of the Year 2013. The world event, founded by Ernst & Young, brought together the winners of 47 national Entrepreneur of the Year programs in a global playoff adjudicated by a panel of seven experienced business owners representing six continents.

The judges believed that Ulukaya’s story represents the best rags-to-riches aspects of global entrepreneurship. Born to a dairy-farming family in east Turkey, Ulukaya moved to upstate New York in 1994, to learn English and attend business school. He never finished his studies, but he started a business producing feta cheese.In 2005, Ulukaya found a newspaper ad announcing the sale of an old Kraft cheese plant. He threw the ad away at first, but then fished it out of the trash and went to see the plant. He bought it against the advice of his friends, using a loan program provided by the U.S. Small Business Administration. He revamped the plant to produce high-quality Greek-style strained yogurt, with twice the protein of conventional U.S. yogurts. Powered by a supply contract with retail giant Costco, the “Chobani Greek” brand has become the best-selling yogurt brand in the U.S.

Today Chobani has sales of close to $1-billion and employs 2200 people. It recently opened a US$450-million yogurt plant in Twin Falls, Ohio, and acquired a factory in Australia.

In the meantime, however, Ulukaya also tried to build a yogurt plant in Canada.

At a press conference following the WEOY gala, the Post asked Ulukaya to name his most serious problem in growing Chobani. Knowing the Post was Canadian, he smiled and replied, “Trying to enter the Canadian market.”

“A lot of Canadians were crossing the border to buy our yogurt,” he said. So Chobani started scouting sites for a Canadian plant. “We found the land, we wanted to build our plant, but then we started running into all these regulations.” The red tape stopped the plant, and Chobani ended up signing a deal to sell its U.S.-made yogurt through Loblaws stores in Ontario.

“But we haven’t given up,” Ulukaya added. “We’re waiting to see how and when we can enter the Canadian market.”

The gala and press conference was attended by more than two dozen journalists from around the world. Unsatisfied with Ulukaya’s answer, a reporter from Russia asked Ulukaya to describe some of the “dark times” he faced in his business.

“We started with five people and now we have almost 1,000,” said Ulukaya. “You wonder, how can we keep the culture and spirit alive?” He tries to preserve the company’s commitment to authentic, natural and healthy food by spending as much time as he can in his plants talking and working with his team members, especially new employees. “I think we’ve actually strengthened our culture,” he said. “I’m really proud of that.”

But he also said that starting a business is never easy. “I almost killed myself in this process,” he said. “It’s very difficult.” He likened entrepreneurship to a quest, “like crossing the ocean or climbing Mount Everest: When you put yourself through this journey, you find out who you really are.”

“I had a lot of dark nights, a lot of loneliness,” he added. He says it was the support of friends that got him through the toughest times.

One journalist noted the irony that the U.S.’s Entrepreneur of the Year is not actually a U.S. citizen. Ulukaya pointed out that he had a green card that entitled him to all the rights of a citizen other than voting — “including paying taxes,” he added. “And I pay a lot of taxes.” He said only “laziness” had prevented him getting his U.S. citizenship, and that he couldn’t think of a better place to live and work: “America is my true home.”

Besides growth and market dominance, the World EOY program is strongly focused on social responsibility. Chobani, named for a much-travelled Middle eastern world that means “shepherd,” is a strong believer in giving back and supporting local communities. Chobani devotes 10% of after-tax profits to its charitable foundation, Shepherd’s Gift Foundation. Last year the company also became an official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic Team.

In a brief victory speech to the WEOY conference, Ulukaya challenged the assembled entrepreneurs to take more responsibility for the world around them. “We have duties,” he said. “That whenever we make wealth, it goes back to the people, and makes a difference in their lives. We have a duty to leave this world to the next generation better than we found it.”

In an interview following the announcement of the winner, judging panel chair Rodrigo Alonso Herra Aspra of Mexico said the judges had had a tight field to choose from. The judges had three days to meet and interview all the contenders. Aspra said the judges narrowed the field of 47 countries to a short list of five top contenders, before finally agreeing, unanimously, on Ulukaya.

While Canada’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Alan Ulsifer of Calgary-based FYIDoctors did not win the competition, his vision is 20-20. Two hours before the announcement, he told the Post he considered Ulukaya the most likely national entrepreneur to win the world title.