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Uncovering the story of the founder of Siggi: How he transformed from consultant to dairy tycoon?
Siggi's Dairy is certainly a notable name in the dairy industry. The brand is best known for its unique Icelandic yogurt (Skyr), which quickly rose to become one of America's most popular yogurts in just a few years. However, behind all this is the unremitting efforts and pursuit of founder Siggi Hilmarsson.
Siger was born in Iceland in 1976 and came to New York in 2002 to prepare to study business management at Columbia Business School. Here, he discovered the problem of high sugar content in American food, especially the alarming sugar content of many yogurts. Seeger was shocked by this, which sparked his idea to create a healthy, low-sugar yogurt.
“It really shocks me that so many foods in America contain so much sugar.”
In 2004, Seger started making homemade yogurt based on a 1913 recipe his mother found in a Reykjavik library. His goal was to create a product with fewer sugars and fewer ingredients, and he missed the thick texture of Icelandic yogurt. Although the constant twists and turns of the initial test made it difficult for him to make a choice, he never thought of giving up.
In 2005, his yogurt finally received initial market feedback. This was the turning point when Seager decided to leave his consulting career. He resigned from his old position to focus on growing his brand. In the following years, Siger's products gradually won the favor of more and more consumers, especially when they were put on the shelves of Whole Foods Market, which rapidly increased brand awareness.
“We were unable to keep up with the increase in demand and even had to temporarily halt production.”
Due to the surge in demand, Seeger's company had to face a series of challenges. He describes a time when he had to stop production and rebuild the line to increase output. Although this difficult time almost left him facing bankruptcy, he eventually managed to weather the storm and established a stable production line in 2010.
As business grew, Seeger continued to expand his production capabilities. In 2013, the company officially moved to a larger factory and established a backup production facility in Wisconsin, which became one of the important factors in the core growth of the brand.
By 2015, Siggi's yogurt had entered 8,800 stores across the United States, and sales increased by 120% from 2014 to 2015. In the following years, the brand continued to be successful in the market and favored by more and more consumers.
“When your business grows to a certain level, you don’t want to rely on just one factory.”
In 2018, French dairy company Lactalis acquired Siggi's, but the company still operates independently. Under Seager's leadership, the brand continued to focus on providing healthier yogurt products and achieved significant market growth.
Siggi's yogurt is loved not only for its high-protein and low-sugar formula, but also for the raw materials it uses - about four times the amount of milk as other brands, which has become a major selling point. . As the brand continues to launch a variety of flavors, including vanilla, blueberry, mixed berry, etc., Siggi's has won a good market reputation.
However, although the path to success seems smooth, Siegel also admits that running this business has great challenges. He described the nine years before 2015 as difficult, but each step of struggle laid a solid foundation for subsequent success.
The story of Siggi's tells us that the transformation from a consultant to a dairy tycoon is not just about passion. This process includes market insights, strict quality control and continuous innovation. After overcoming many challenges, Seeger finally realized his dream of introducing traditional, affordable health products from Iceland to the U.S. market.
"Everything he has done makes us think: To what extent can one person's passion and efforts change the food industry?"
