NEW YORK, Dec. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Rabobank, the
leading global food and agribusiness bank, announced it has named
Chobani as the winner of its 2012 North America Innovation in
Leadership award for Chobani's groundbreaking contribution to the
U.S. yogurt sector. Grace
Simmons, vice president of strategic initiatives for
Chobani, accepted the award on behalf of Chobani at Rabobank's
recent Commodity, Corporate, and Trade Finance Forum.
The Rabobank award for Innovation in Leadership recognizes a
company in the bank's North American Wholesale client portfolio
which has demonstrated exceptional ability and resourcefulness in
implementing new ideas and business practices, or applying existing
ideas and practices in new ways, that contribute significant value
to the company and/or its industry. The 2012 award honors
Chobani, a Rabobank client, for the transformational impact of its
practices on the U.S. yogurt industry and its success in redefining
an established market to advance its own business and the overall
yogurt category.
Rita Keskinyan, Managing Director
at Rabobank, said, "We are very pleased to name Chobani the
recipient of our inaugural Leadership in Innovation award. In
a sector historically dominated by global giants, Chobani – led by
its visionary founder, president and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya – clearly evidences that a
singular focus on the consumer and an organizational culture which
thrives on innovation can be powerful drivers of a meteoric rise to
market leadership. Rabobank is proud to have helped Chobani
make its first strategic international expansion with the
acquisition of Bead Foods in Australia, even as its remarkable take-off
began in North America."
"At Chobani, innovation is at the core of everything we do –
from research and development to the way we build our production
facilities and cultivate our employees," said John Heath, vice president of new ventures and
innovation at Chobani. "We're honored to have been chosen for
Rabobank's 2012 North America Innovation in Leadership award for
superior innovation in the consumer products industry."
Rabobank's 2nd annual Commodity, Corporate and Trade Finance
Forum, held the last day of November, is a one-day strategic think
tank that brings together industry leaders in business, finance,
academia, and consulting to examine key strategies, trends and
challenges in the food and agribusiness, consumer and food retail,
and energy sectors – the bank's areas of focus in North
America. Keynote speakers this year were Dr. Willy C. Shih, Professor and U.S.
Competitiveness Project Faculty member at Harvard Business School, and Dr. Laurie Santos, Director of the Comparative
Cognition Laboratory at Yale University.
"Regaining America's edge in manufacturing will require
company-level decisions that reinvest in new product and process
development in the U.S. industrial sector, as Chobani has done,"
said Professor Shih, co-author of Producing Prosperity: Why
America Needs a Manufacturing Renaissance. "Only by reviving
this 'industrial commons' can America build the expertise and
manufacturing muscle to regain competitive advantage."
Also at this year's Forum, Rabobank honored Professor
Ray Goldberg, George M. Moffett
Professor of Agriculture and Business, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School, with an award for
Long-standing Partnership and Exceptional Contribution to
Agribusiness.
Since hitting shelves in 2007, Chobani has skyrocketed to become
America's number one-selling yogurt brand, igniting a yogurt
revolution in the United States.
All the while, Chobani has never wavered from its founding
philosophy: to make great-tasting, high-quality products available
for everyone. As Chobani flourishes, so do its local communities:
Chobani is committed to using milk from surrounding area
farms around its New Berlin, New
York, Twin Falls, Idaho,
and Dandenong, Australia,
production facilities, driving local economic growth and
revival.
Innovation and creativity within the food and agriculture
industry will be critical in both emerging and developed markets to
address the need to feed a global population of 9 billion by the
year 2050, says Rabobank. In selecting the winner of its
annual award for "Leadership in Innovation," Rabobank considers
examples of innovation in the following areas: products or
services, technology or systems, supply chain management, operating
efficiencies, risk management, sales/marketing/distribution, and
ethical leadership and responsibility.
Rajiv Singh, Head of Professional
Products at Rabobank in the Americas, said, "While the banking
industry is experiencing significant change and pressures on a
number of fronts, banks remain key to enabling the flow of capital
to the innovations and creative solutions that we need to meet the
challenges of the 21st century, especially in reigniting the global
economy. Banks now have a great opportunity to refocus:
to support and invest in the real economy, to reconfirm the
client's position at the center of our thinking and the way we
measure our performance, and to support value-adding innovation in
our customer base. Rabobank is committed to these ideas,
which is why we have created this award to recognize and praise
Leadership in Innovation for companies in our core sectors. The
sign on Rabobank's headquarters building says "Imagine Being there"
– we ask all of our clients to imagine where your business can be,
and Rabobank can help you get there."
Rabobank Group is a global financial services leader
providing wholesale and retail banking, asset management, leasing,
real estate services, and renewable energy project financing.
Founded over a century ago, Rabobank is one of the largest banks in
the world, with nearly $1 trillion in
assets and operations in more than 40 countries. In North
America, Rabobank is a premier bank to the food, beverage and
agribusiness industry and the renewable energy sector.
www.Rabobank.com
Chobani
Maker of America's #1 selling yogurt brand,
authentic strained Chobani Greek Yogurt, Chobani was founded on the
belief that people have great taste, they just need great options.
That is why Chobani produces only the highest quality, best tasting
products out of its New Berlin,
N.Y. plant and its new one million square-foot
production facility in Twin Falls,
Idaho. As part of Chobani's nothing but
good philosophy, it is committed to supporting local
farmers and strengthening its surrounding area economies. Chobani
uses milk from local-area farms and gives 10% of its
annual profits to charities worldwide through the Shepherd's Gift
Foundation, the company's charitable arm. All Chobani products
are Kosher certified, made with milk from cows not treated
with rBST and provide five live and active cultures, three strains
of probiotics and two times more protein than regular yogurt.
Chobani is available nationwide as well as in Australia, the UK and Canada. Chobani is
pleased to offer consumers a variety of nothing but
good products: Chobani Greek Yogurt and
Chobani Champions. For more information, please
visit chobani.com or connect with Chobani on Facebook
at Facebook.Com/chobani.
Rabobank North America 2012 Award for Leadership in
Innovation: Chobani, Inc.
Chobani was selected by Rabobank North America as the winner of
its 2012 award for Innovation in Leadership based on the
following:
- Challenging the Status Quo. In just five years,
Chobani™ Greek yogurt has grown to $1
billion in annual revenue and, in the process, reignited the
U.S. yogurt market as America's #1 selling yogurt brand.
Where others saw the yogurt market as fixed to the "sweet"
varieties traditionally sold in the U.S., Chobani founder
Hamdi Ulukaya foresaw Greek yogurt's
appeal to the everyday U.S. consumer on a mass scale.
- Word-of-Mouth. To get the word out and to compete
against larger and more established yogurt brands, Chobani embraced
a grassroots marketing approach, capitalizing on sampling,
word-of-mouth recommendation and social media to build a consumer
following.
- Broadening the Scope of the Brand. In 2010,
Chobani expanded its product portfolio into the kids' yogurt
segment with Chobani Champions, the first Greek yogurt for kids. In
the last year, Chobani Champions has grown to be the 4th
best-selling yogurt in the segment.
- Creating/Finding New Usage Occasions. Chobani saw
an opportunity to educate consumers of the versatile uses for
Chobani yogurt beyond a single-serving cup for breakfast. Chobani
introduced Chobani Kitchen, which provides recipes that help
consumers create delicious and healthier meals using Chobani
yogurt. That has greatly expanded the way consumers view the
brand.
- Planning for the Future. Chobani is constructing a
new facility in Twin Falls, Idaho,
scheduled to open in mid-December. Following a $450 million investment, the plant will greatly
expand the company's production capacity, allow new product
innovations to come to market, and at $1
million sq. ft., will be the largest yogurt plant in the
U.S. Internationally, Chobani is available in the
Greater Toronto area, acquired
Bead Foods in Australia in 2011,
and recently opened a plant in Dandenong, Australia to strategically grow both
Australian and Asian markets.
- Giving Back to the Community. Chobani's charitable
arm, the Shepherd's Gift Foundation (Chobani means 'shepherd' in
Mediterranean languages), donates 10% of the company's profits to
dozens of causes and charitable organizations in the U.S. and
around the world.
SOURCE Rabobank