Stonyfield Yogurt: Gary Hirshberg

Guy Raz (0:00)

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Gary Hirshberg (2:12)

On many occasions, I would tiptoe over to the office to call my mother-in-law to have a chat to see if I could borrow another $3,500 or $2,500 to make ends meet.

One night, I heard the click-click of call waiting on my mother-in-law's phone. Meg was calling from the house to say, Mom, don't do this.

Guy Raz (2:30)

Wait, your wife was telling her mom not to lend you money for the business?

Gary Hirshberg (2:35)

Right.

Guy Raz (2:35)

Because it sounds like maybe she didn't believe in it.

Gary Hirshberg (2:38)

Well, she had no reason to believe in it. It was insane.

Guy Raz (2:47)

From NPR, it's How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.

I'm Guy Raz, and on today's show, how two hippie farmers and a cow named Lily Bell started a side business in a drafty barn and grew it into Stonyfield, one of the biggest yogurt brands in America.

So, of all the stories that we've told on this show so far, I think it's fairly safe to say that Stonyfield Yogurt has had more ups and downs, and really more downs, than just about any other. And it's a pretty unlikely tale to begin with. Two eco-hippie farmers, with no real desire to build a company, wind up building a company. They start small, milking their own cows, making their own yogurts, selling locally to nuns, and then eventually spreading themselves way too thin, and sliding into deep debt. Now, over the years, Stonyfield has had a whole slew of near-death experiences, but it never quite died, and in fact, it grew. It grew into one of the most popular yogurt brands in the United States. And one thing about Stonyfield's co-founder, Gary Hirshberg, is that even though he didn't really set out to build a company, he knew what it took to run one. Because when he was growing up in Manchester, New Hampshire, his dad owned and ran a pretty big shoe company.

Gary Hirshberg (4:19)

You know, it was, in those days, there were probably 50 shoe manufacturers in New Hampshire alone, and probably 150 in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

Guy Raz (4:29)

So how many people did your dad's company employ?

Gary Hirshberg (4:33)

Several thousand. I think at their peak, they were at 2,800.

Guy Raz (4:37)

Wow.

Gary Hirshberg (4:38)

These were true company towns. Of course, in those days, manufacturing was, you know, the state was built, and the region and the country were built on things that we made.