Latest news with #Chobani
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
This Barely Used Child Care Tax Break For Employers Just Got An Overhaul
The Employer-Provided Childcare Tax Credit just got a revamp. Matt Roth for The Washington Post via Getty Images Before CAKES body cofounder Taylor Capuano had her moment of fame on Shark Tank in 2023 for putting one of her retail company's nipple covers on judge Kevin O'Leary's head, she, like many working parents, had nearly reached a breaking point at her nine-to-five job. Capuano and her husband had their first child during the Covid pandemic while she was working in marketing, and it was a financial struggle. After paying for basic monthly expenses–including a hefty child care bill and health insurance–there was barely anything left to save. Coupled with a boss who she says told her to start looking for another job when she needed additional daytime flexibility, Capuano knew the corporate world was failing parents like her. Like so many others, she turned to entrepreneurship and cofounded CAKES body with her sister, Casey Sarai in 2022. It's now a $92 million (2024 revenue) viral undergarments startup with 30 employees. As the Trump Administration is floating ideas to boost the U.S. birth rate, including (as part of the just-passed tax and budget bill), putting $1,000 into a 'Trump Account' for babies born between 2025 and 2028, employers are increasingly stepping up to address one of the biggest challenges for working parents: the child care crisis. Major companies, notably Chobani, UPS and Etsy, have unveiled new child care benefits for employees in recent years, from on-site facilities to stipends for backup care. And while such programs don't typically cover the full price of daycare, research shows they're making a difference and helping companies' bottom lines by reducing absences and turnover. Still, few firms are taking advantage of one of the key incentives in the U.S. tax code to help cover some of the cost of providing such a program to their employees. Bigger Tax Breaks On The Horizon Until recently, the Employer-Provided Childcare Tax Credit allowed companies to offset 25% of the cost of building or operating a child care facility for employees, or contracting with a qualified provider, for up to a $150,000 tax break annually. But according to data Forbes obtained from the IRS, just 176 businesses operating as C corporations and pass-through corporations, including S corporations, claimed the tax credit in 2021, the most recent year the data was available. That's a minuscule fraction of the 6.7 million corporate income tax returns filed that year. The expense of constructing a facility compared to how much a business can get from the credit is one of the reasons it is underutilized, says Aaron Merchen, executive director of policy and programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. The maximum amount businesses could claim under the tax break had not been updated since its creation in 2001, until last week. President Donald Trump's just-signed reconciliation package more than triples the amount that businesses can claim under the credit, while also allowing them to use a third-party to arrange child care for their employees. Companies will now be allowed to claim 40% of qualified child care expenditures up to $500,000, or 50% up to $600,000 in the case of small businesses. Investing In Retention And Productivity Since founding CAKES body three years ago, Capuano and Sarai are set on creating a supportive workplace culture for the parents on their staff, who they view as crucial to the firm's success. So they began looking into offering a subsidy for child care. After researching whether they could take advantage of child care benefits tax credits, they hit a brick wall in 'about 20 minutes,' says Sarai. None of the existing programs would completely cover their subsidy budget, or make sense for a remote workforce. They wound up offering every full-time staff member a reimbursement of up to $3,000 per month toward nanny, daycare or babysitter costs, with a prorated program for part-time employees. The startup—which expects to clear $150 million in revenue this year—has budgeted up to $500,000 for the program in 2025, which they say translates to 100% employer-sponsored child care. 'It is not just a nice thing to do,' Sarai tells Forbes . 'This is part of our growth strategy and part of investing in the top talent that we have and maintaining them.' In a 2024 study for Boston Consulting Group, Emily Kos, a managing director and partner, and her team examined five companies in a range of industries that offered childcare benefits such as reimbursements and on-site daycare: Etsy, Fast Retailing, Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado, Synchrony, and UPS. Every single one saw a positive return on investment, which Kos says was calculated by looking at retention and productivity, ranging from 90% to 425%. Before Covid-19 hit, financial services company Synchrony provided 10 days a year of backup child care as a benefit. Now, says Aaron Brown, senior vice president of Total Rewards, the company reimburses 60 days of backup care up to $100 per day, which can cover anything from summer camp to a babysitter. 'We're glad that people are using the benefit because it means that we're getting better business performance,' he says. The company receives requests for around 4,000 days per year, which Forbes estimates would cost the company roughly $400,000. He says the cost is well worth it—the firm has had a 30% increase in applicants post-pandemic and low turnover. 'The care economy underpins the full economy,' says BCG's Kos. 'If parents can't go to work or if caregivers more broadly than just parents can't go to work, it's a significant portion of the workforce.'
Fast Company
09-07-2025
- Business
- Fast Company
Lisa Smith killed the ‘blanding' trend. Now she has another plan to upend branding
Seven years ago, your grocer's dairy section became visually fantastical. You might not remember how sterile it used to be: the shelves were once dominated by similarly drab, white Greek yogurt cups that delivered on practical, nutritional performance. But truckload by truckload, the shelves transformed into a ripely colorful, whimsical, and idyllic play land of Chobani's making. The company had just undergone a monumental rebrand under the direction of designers Lisa Smith and Leland Maschmeyer, and they doled out a new design world in thousands of 5.3 ounce portions. Who knew a product like high-protein Greek yogurt could turn design off minimalism? But soon, a cohort of expressive, personality-driven, maximalist copycats emerged. Cooper Black was the new black. Smith had never been averse to stylistic shake-ups, if a brand mission calls for it. She'd rebranded the Met while at Wolff Olins; later at the design agency JKR, she satiatingly rebranded Burger King. Following six years as global executive creative director JKR, where she also rebranded Mozilla, Fanta, Impossible, and Walmart, Smith is moving to the smaller, multifunctional creative studio Uncommon as its first-ever global chief design officer, with another simple but groundbreaking idea: to expand what ' branding ' encompasses. Here, Smith explains why holistic teams that include advertising and marketing creatives are the real way to push design forward, why handoff should happen after launch day, and how she plans to build a renegade team that goes 'beyond just delivering guidelines.' 'I've always been a little bit messy,' she says. This conversation has been condensed and edited. The super-early-rate deadline for Fast Company's Most Innovative Companies Awards is Friday, July 25, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.
7NEWS
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- 7NEWS
An easy dessert with a fruity twist, you'll love this passionfruit and coconut yoghurt cake
Courtney Roulston is a cook, TV personality and Coles ambassador. Today, Courtney is making passionfruit and yoghurt cake recipe split. This recipe uses Chobani yoghurt. Recipe below: PASSIONFRUIT & COCONUT YOGHURT CAKE SERVES 8 Recipe By Courtney Roulston for Sunrise Featuring Chobani yoghurt Prep time: 15 minutes Cook time: 45 minutes, plus cooling time Ingredients 1 x 907g tub Chobani Greek yoghurt 2 large free range eggs 2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 2/3 cup fresh passionfruit pulp, divided into 2 portions (one portion sieved of seeds) 1 cup caster sugar 1 ½ cups self raising flour ½ cup desiccated coconut 2 tablespoons honey 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste ¼ cup coconut flakes to garnish Method Step 1. Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees C. Grease and line a 23cm cake tin. Remove 1 cup of yoghurt from the tub then place the remaining yoghurt into a sieve lined with a clean cloth suspended over a bowl. Leave in the fridge for 1.5 hours to remove excess whey from the yoghurt while the cake cooks. Step 2. In a mixing bowl whisk 1 cup of yoghurt with eggs, oil, strained passionfruit juice, sugar and a pinch of salt until combined. Sift the flour into the yoghurt mixture then gently fold through along with the coconut until you have a smooth batter. Step 3. Pour the batter into the prepared tin and bake in the middle rack of the oven for 45 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove the cake from the oven and leave in the tin to rest for 10 minutes before placing on a wire rack to cool completely. Step 4. Place the strained yoghurt into a bowl and mix through the honey and vanilla. Place the cake onto a serving plate then spread the yoghurt mixture over the top in an even layer. Spoon over the remaining passionfruit pulp and scatter with coconut flakes before serving.
Business Insider
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Chobani's founder says the Make America Healthy Again movement's ingredient crackdown poses a big risk for food makers
Artificial dyes and other food ingredients are getting more scrutiny these days. Chobani 's founder welcomes it — but says the movement could create problems for food makers. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has talked about removing some artificial ingredients from foods, both before and after he became a member of President Donald Trump's cabinet this year. It's one of the priorities of Kennedy's "Make America Healthy Again" movement, known as MAHA, for short. Hamdi Ulukaya, the founder and CEO of yogurt brand Chobani, said Tuesday that he's long supported removing ingredients like high-fructose corn syrup and artificial coloring from food. Part of Chobani's pitch to customers is that its yogurt doesn't contain artificial ingredients. However, removing some ingredients can create unintended blowback from customers and create challenges for food companies as they try to make better products, Ulukaya said, speaking at The Wall Street Journal's Global Food Forum. Ulukaya provided an example: Chobani made a small change to its oat milk that had big trade-offs customers immediately noticed. Previously, Chobani used dipotassium phosphate in its oat milk. The compound made the drink foam better, Ulukaya said. This quality won favor with baristas and coffee drinkers. Chobani recently removed the ingredient, a process that took two years, Ulukaya confirmed during the presentation. Some customers seem to miss it, Ulukaya said. "Yesterday, I got a consumer complaint, and it said 'My oat milk is not foaming as good as it used to,'" he said. Reviews of Chobani's oat milk on its website confirm that some people aren't happy with the new version. "Lost a customer due to recipe change," reads the title of one recent review. Ulukaya has also gotten customer complaints about ingredient changes as subtle as the type of vanilla it uses. "You have to be open that some of the people are not going to like some of those changes," he said. This points to a challenge for food manufacturers that are being urged by the MAHA movement to use fewer artificial ingredients: Making changes to products might turn away loyal buyers. "They don't want to take those risks," he said, referring to food companies. "People get really, really pissed." Food with better ingredients also has to be broadly accessible and affordable to shoppers in order to make a difference, Ulukaya said. Food manufacturers use some artificial or added ingredients, such as processed sugar, to make food taste better without raising costs. "Everybody wants to eat good, but I don't want to pay $3 for a cup of yogurt," he said.
Malaysian Reserve
18-06-2025
- Business
- Malaysian Reserve
Alianza de Futbol Renews Partnership with Chobani for 2025 Tour, Strengthening Commitment to Hispanic Communities and Youth Empowerment
New Chapter Builds on Shared Values of Community, Youth Development, and Opportunity Through Soccer NEW YORK, June 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Alianza de Futbol, the leading national soccer program for Hispanic communities in the U.S., today announced the renewal of its partnership with Chobani, the natural food maker known for disrupting the Greek yogurt category. The collaboration, led by For Soccer, extends into the 2025 Alianza Tour and builds on the momentum of Chobani's successful 2024 campaign. In returning as an official sponsor of the 2025 Alianza de Futbol Tour, Chobani reinforces its commitment to using food as a force for good within the local community and supporting youth development across the country. As part of this year's renewed partnership, Chobani will be present at select tour stops with on-site brand activations, product sampling, and community engagement events designed to bring family-friendly experiences directly to fans. Chobani's presence will be integrated into digital campaigns and storytelling initiatives to amplify its support of grassroots soccer and the broader Hispanic community. Chobani x Alianza 2025 Activation Schedule: San Antonio – June 21–22 Colorado Springs – July 5–6 Chicago – July 19–20 New York – August 2–3 Salinas – August 9–10 Los Angeles – August 23–24 El Paso – September 13–14 'Chobani's continued support means more than just sponsorship—it's a real investment in the communities we serve,' said Daina Lecuona, Director of Alianza de Futbol. 'Our shared values around family, wellness, and opportunity make this partnership impactful both on and off the field. Together, we're not just growing the game—we're strengthening the fabric of Hispanic communities nationwide.' The renewed partnership highlights a shared vision between Chobani and Alianza: using soccer as a platform to drive positive change in underserved communities and inspire the next generation of leaders. About ChobaniChobani is a food maker with a mission of making high-quality and nutritious food accessible to more people, while elevating our communities and making the world a healthier place. In short: making good food for all. In support of this mission, Chobani is a purpose-driven, people-first, food-and-wellness-focused company, and has been since its founding in 2005 by Hamdi Ulukaya, an immigrant to the U.S. The Company manufactures yogurt, oat milk, and creamers – Chobani yogurt is America's No.1 yogurt brand, made with natural ingredients without artificial preservatives. Following the 2023 acquisition of La Colombe, a leading coffee roaster with a shared commitment to quality, craftmanship and impact, the Company began selling cold-pressed espresso and lattes on tap at cafés nationwide, as well as Ready to Drink (RTD) coffee beverages at retail. In 2025, Chobani acquired Daily Harvest, a modern brand offering consumers nutritious, delicious and convenient ready-to-make meals. Chobani uses food as a force for good in the world – putting humanity first in everything it does. The company's philanthropic efforts prioritize giving back to its communities and beyond. Chobani manufactures its products in New York, Idaho, Michigan and Australia, and its products are available throughout North America and distributed in Australia and other select markets. For more information, please visit or follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. About For SoccerFor Soccer is the preeminent North American soccer marketing, media, and experiences company, focused on helping brands accelerate soccer growth through research, content, experiential marketing, sponsorships, and our owned properties of Alianza de Futbol and Black Star. About Alianza de FutbolAlianza de Futbol is the premier Hispanic soccer program in the U.S., dedicated to top-level soccer experiences and community engagement. It is proudly part of For Soccer, a company committed to growing the game at every level. For more information and to register, visit: and join the conversation on social media using #AlianzaDeFutbol. Media Contact:Daina
