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Yogurt maker Chobani to replace CEO with president: NY Post

[January 05, 2015]  (Reuters) - Greek yogurt maker Chobani is considering replacing Chief Executive Hamdi Ulukaya with its President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Burns, the New York Post reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

One of the primary reasons for the removal of Ulukaya, founded the company, is a product recall in 2013 that led to negative EBITDA of $87 million in the fourth quarter, the paper reported, citing internal documents it reviewed. (http://bit.ly/1xso0h9)

The recall was a result of bad design and layout incorporated during the construction of the company's $450 million Idaho factory, and due to lack of training for workers, the Post reported.

Ulukaya, who built the factory, kept a lot of his key executives in the dark as they continued to spend freely amid mounting losses and increasing chaos at the factory, the report said.

Private-equity firm TPG invested $750 million in the New Berlin, New York-based company last year to save it from the cash crunch arising as a result of the problems at Idaho.

TPG declined to comment. Chobani could not be reached for comment outside regular business hours.

(Reporting by Ankush Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)

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