Just six months after buying La Colombe for $900 million, Chobani is bringing its way of doing business to the 30-year-old coffee brand.
The Greek yogurt giant has already spent more than $30 million to improve its Muskegon, Michigan, La Colombe plant and to increase the pay and other benefits for the more than 900 employees working across the coffee brand.
Bill Cooper, who started with Chobani in 2011 as a production manager and now is the director of operations at the La Colombe plant, said the company tapped into the prior experience it amassed with Chobani to make improvements faster at the newly acquired brand. It’s already paying off through improved efficiency, more reliable equipment and stronger safety programs.
“It’s a bit of a journey, of course, … but just to put it into perspective, if you walked around the building right now, it would look considerably different than a couple of months ago,” Cooper said in an interview.
Cooper recently sat down to discuss changes to the Michigan La Colombe plant and future plans for the facility where it makes its popular ready-to-drink cans and multi-serve coffee. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
FOOD DIVE: What did you notice at Chobani when La Colombe was acquired?
BILL COOPER: There was a lot of internal excitement throughout the organization. We had kind of just been focusing on dairy very heavily and then we slowly expanded our [Chobani] portfolio. We were aware of the [possibility of an] acquisition, and there was a lot of conversation about what the future would hold and would there be opportunities for professionals such as myself to take part in the growth and the improvement of the La Colombe organization.
Now that it’s finally here, people are thoroughly excited about it. In terms of resource sharing and resource relocating, there’s no shortage of that.
Can you discuss more about the resources that La Colombe has been able to tap into from Chobani following the acquisition?
COOPER: From a performance optimization standpoint and a processes standpoint, we have leaders at our other [Chobani] sites that have already been through this. When I started [at Chobani] in 2011, it was very, very similar to the current state here in Muskegon. So having resources that have lived through those experiences and then can take their personal experience and deploy it here in Michigan, it closes the gap in terms of lead time to solve these kinds of issues. It’s resources with experiences that have been through this before.
What changes have been implemented for employees at the Muskegon, Michigan plant?
COOPER: There’s a very heavy focus on our infrastructure right now. We started with a $20 million infusion into our workforce, with a $4 pay increase, benefits harmonization, access to employee assistance programs, things along those lines, and then another $10 million here on site and that’s starting with investments, not just the people, but also our process and our products.
If you look at our facilities, for example, they would look markedly different right now than they had three months ago. We’re doing a lot of decluttering. We’re improving infrastructure. We’re trying to steer ourselves towards becoming a first-choice employer in the area.
You can’t just say that you want to be that without taking some action around it. Little things like HVAC upgrades, for example. .. Just kind of paying attention to those types of details right out of the gate, like what are the immediate improvements that we can make to improve the overall situation and strive towards a better work environment.
Are you tapping into Chobani’s playbook and bringing it to La Colombe?
COOPER: We absolutely are. We want to maintain a strong presence in the community. We want to continue to build that relationship. And we want to grow with the community. And that’s an integral part of our business plan. And that’s a lot of the reason that I’m behind this company in the way that I am.
You’re only a few months into La Colombe being under the Chobani ownership. Are you planning more investments in the plant and your employees?
COOPER: In terms of the workforce investments, I think we’re pretty close to being over the goal line there. Of course, we’re always looking to improve the situation for our employees. But the $10 million that I referred to as part of our site were improvements and expansion [for things] like a better and bigger parking lot, better facilities in terms of locker rooms and bathrooms and office space, and then equipment improvements and things along those lines.
Chobani, we’re very innovative. We’re very fast in terms of how we do it. We’re not afraid to pivot, and I can tell you that we have big plans for this company and big plans for the site.
Can you talk more about the future of the La Colombe in Muskegon, Michigan plant? It’s only six months after the acquisition, but are you where you want to be?
COOPER: People, process and product. We’re going to continue to invest in our people. We’ve done a bunch of stuff already, but certainly not where we want to be yet. And we’ll continue to challenge ourselves in that regard.
Our process, we want to maximize our output. We want to maximize our plant. We want to fill it. A plant that runs 24/7 is a happy plant. So we’re working very diligently doing just that and making sure that we have a full 24/7 schedule to run. And then beyond that, we’re continuing to challenge ourselves on our product and our formulation and our packaging materials and things along those lines that just contribute to the overall improvement.
It’s a bit of a journey, of course, … but just to put it into perspective, if you walked around the building right now, it would look considerably different than a couple of months ago. … We’re not where we want to be in terms of our journey, we are kind of in the middle of it, though, again, working with timelines and being pragmatic about how quickly we can achieve this stuff if we’re going to do it correctly. So it’s just finding that balance.
So we’re a little ways out. It’s a smaller facility than [Chobani’s plants in] Twin Falls, [Idaho] and South Edmeston [New York,] so I’d like to think we can get it done a little bit quicker. We’ve actually made some pretty substantial performance gains over the last couple of months in terms of our efficiency, our overall equipment effectiveness, our safety programs, just building our processes while we continue to focus on getting our equipment to run a little better.
Let’s get the site and current state performing well before we start to build around it. I think that’s an important pillar of what we’re looking to do here because we don’t want to build around something that’s not performing up to our standards. So, again, back to our efficiencies, our safety programs and metrics, our [Overall Equipment Effectiveness], our processing areas. We’re just looking to mistake-proof it and optimize it, and we’ve done a lot of those types of things and in a very short period of time.
When it comes to the Michigan La Colombe facility, can you tap into insight from the other two Chobani plants you mentioned?
COOPER: Absolutely. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. We’re modeling after our successes in Twin Falls and in South Edmeston. So that’s been a little bit of how we were able to solve a lot of this stuff sooner rather than later. We’re just deploying best practices that we’ve already learned in the sites.
You have this component of let’s get our equipment running better. Let’s get our people trained up and focus on our culture. But we also have to build the processes around all that. So it’s still a little bit rocky in that regard. But certainly seeing the gains and feeling the gains.
