Ulukaya's father was a Turkish tribal leader who aggregated and sold cheese
Hamdi Ulukaya · Chobani: Hamdi Ulukaya (2022) · Jul 14, 2025 · at 5:14
Chobani founder Hamdi Ulukaya describes his upbringing in a semi-nomadic Kurdish community in Turkey and his family's dairy heritage.
0:00 / 0:46exact quote · 46.4s
720p mp4 · rendered on demand · StarZero watermark
“So he was Aga. So Aga means he's the leader of the tribe. And my father kind of didn't want to follow that tradition, but he was kind of natural leader. Now, because you're Aga, you don't have other things. Like, you know, we didn't have bicycles, for example. We didn't have toys. We ate the same thing. We had the same conditions. We live under the same tents. So it didn't make it too much difference in life, but what it did is you had a reputation, people will trust you, they will value your opinion and usually you will buy all the other people's cheese, and you combine them, and you would, my father would take it to big cities and sell them.”
quote is from the automated transcript, cleaned for reading: filler sounds and stutters are removed, nothing is rephrased. names can be misheard (the analysis reads context, assessments check outside sources). how →
More from Hamdi Ulukaya
Ulukaya reveals Chobani was nearly forced into bankruptcy after Idaho recall
“You're about to File bankruptcy. Exactly. I've never talked about this anywhere before. It wasn't that damaging. But what it is, is the banks got really nervous, and they wanted their loan to be paid back. And that loan was used to build a factory supported by…”
Investors Demanded Near-Majority Equity and Ulukaya's Ouster During Chobani Crisis
“A time came, and I remember the gentleman called me, and he said, here's the amount that you will get, here is the, you know, percentage of the company that you have to give away, which is what was almost majority at that time, and you will be out of the compa…”
Ulukaya offered his factory as collateral to secure supermarket shelf space
“I personally said, if it doesn't sell, I will give you the factory.”
Chobani hired refugees and provided translators to overcome manufacturing labor shortages
“I called the refugee center, and I said, what is the problem? And she said these are people who have a right to work, legally settled, and they don't speak the language, they don't have, you know, transportation, or people don't want to touch it because it's a…”
Ulukaya: Chobani Was One Night From Bankruptcy Before Lender Intervened
“One night before, before we filed, the banker called and said, Hamdi, we hear that you're going to do this. It's going to make us look so bad. I think they were also acting, acting really out of ordinary at that time, forcing me to do something. And he says, w…”