TWIN FALLS, ID-With Idaho Governor C.L. Otter looking on, Norwich, New York-based yogurt maker Chobani broke ground on a 940,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in this Idaho city. When completed, the plant will hire 400 employees to operate the plant. 

“This is the next chapter in our four-year history,” said Chobani founder and chief executive Hamdi Ulukaya at the event. The Greek-born yogurt tycoon started the company in 2005 and has seen it grow into a top-selling brand of the cultured milk product in America. Efforts to reach Ulukaya or other Chobani officials for further information were not successful. 

Production at the new plant is scheduled to start in the second half of 2012, when the company says it plans to hire 400 new workers.  Among the on-site features promised in the design are a 45,000 square foot employee facility with an open office plan illuminated by natural light, a daycare center, training facilities, conference room and a “wellness center.” Those kinds of corporate amenities are more familiar to the employees in Silicon Valley or Cambridge,  MA than in Idaho. 

With a 200-acre site, the new Chobani plan in Twin Falls has ample room for expansion. 

Idaho’s large-scale dairy industry was a primary factor in the company’s choice to build the new plant in the northwestern state, Gov. Otter said at the groundbreaking.  “Chobani needs a reliable supply of high-quality milk, motivated and well-trained employees, a supportive community and a business-friendly state government,”  he said.

In a statement, the company says it is “committed to supporting local farmers and strengthening their surrounding area economies.” 

Chobani is a classic American success story. Ulukaya, the 40-year-old company founder, first arrived in America in 1997 to improve his English and continue his education. The company currently claims to be “America’s No. #1 yogurt brand.”