Chobani acquires Daily Harvest
On Friday, Greek yogurt maker Chobani announced it acquired Daily Harvest, the plant-based frozen meal brand. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
According to Chobani’s announcement, the two “purpose-led brands” share a vision of making “high-quality, delicious food made with real ingredients more accessible.” Chobani also said this acquisition marks its entry into healthy ready-to-make meals.
“With Chobani’s world-class manufacturing, distribution, and retail expertise, our goal is for Daily Harvest to reach every home in America,” said Chobani’s release. The news comes on the heels of Chobani investing over $1 million in a new manufacturing facility in Upstate New York.
This is the second high-profile acquisition Chobani has made in recent years. The company acquired coffee brand La Colombe in late 2023 in a $900 million deal, and has since expanded the coffee line through its R&D and distribution operations.
Chobani chief customer officer John Frost told Modern Retail in an interview at Expo West that Chobani has plans to further grow the coffee brand.
“We took our best food science from Chobani and combined it with La Colombe to give you a real authentic cafe experience,” Frost said. “We are in the process of getting this product line out more prominently. Last year was a big year for us because we got critical distribution in select mass and grocery retailers.” This will continue through 2025 and into next year.
Founded in 2015, Daily Harvest began as a DTC brand delivering frozen ready-to-blend smoothies and bowls. It accumulated a sky-high valuation while staying pretty much entirely direct-to-consumer. In 2021, Daily Harvest hit a $1.1 billion valuation.
In 2022, Daily Harvest was embroiled in controversy after some people reported getting sick — with some reporting that they had to have emergency surgery to remove their gallbladders — after consuming the company’s French Lentil + Leek Crumbles. Daily Harvest voluntarily recalled the product. It was later reported that the culprit was an ingredient, tara flour, which customers had adverse reactions to. In response to lawsuits, Daily Harvest and one of its manufacturers agreed to a settlement.
Since 2023, one of the big focuses at Daily Harvest has been expanding access by growing its frozen grocery line through retail. In 2023, it launched in Kroger, and in May 2024, it launched at Target.
With the Daily Harvest acquisition, Chobani won’t just be entering a new category, but also an entirely new section of the grocery store: the frozen aisle. While coffee and creamer are natural products to display side by side, it remains to be seen how Chobani markets all of these new brands together.
“Chobani has always been prideful in the fact that we want to be ahead of the consumer with our food,” Frost said. “We invest many of our resources across the company in making sure of that, and this is a big moment for us.”