Greek yogurt is known for being rich in flavor and protein. Now, some employees at Chobani could become rich themselves.
On Tuesday, founder and CEO Hamdi Ulukaya announced that he would be giving all of his 2,000 full-time workers awards that could be worth up to 10 percent of the privately held company’s future value if it becomes public or is sold. Each employee will be given “Chobani Shares” or award units, based on workers’ tenure and role at the company, which could convert to cash or shares in the event of an initial public offering or a sale. The value of the awards are dependent on company performance, however, and have the potential to be worth nothing if the company doesn’t meet performance metrics.
The New York Times, which first reported the news, said that if Chobani was valued at $3 billion, the average employee payout could be $150,000, and some long-tenured employees could see windfalls possibly worth more than $1 million. (A Chobani spokesperson declined to confirm those amounts.)
Ulukaya, a Turkish immigrant who has pledged to give away half his wealth and advocated for business leaders to do more to hire refugees, announced the news to workers Tuesday. He said in a memo to employees that the award was not a gift, but “a mutual promise to work together with a shared purpose and responsibility,” he wrote. “How we built this company matters to me, but how we grow it matters even more. I want you to be a part of this growth — I want you to be the driving force of it.”
Bruce Elliott, manager of compensation and benefits for the Society of Human Resource Management, called the move highly atypical. “It’s unusual to see that in food services and manufacturing,” he said in an interview. While it’s relatively common among startups in the tech industry, Elliott said, it’s rare to see founders offer employees such awards at this stage of a company’s growth. Chobani was founded in 2005 and has grown rapidly; after struggling with managing a plant expansion and a 2013 recall, it reached $1.6 billion in 2015 sales, according to Euromonitor.
