Who Makes Kirkland Greek Yogurt? (Quality, Review + More)

If you’ve purchased many Kirkland products while shopping the aisles of Costco, you may find yourself wondering how it could be possible for Costco to manufacture such a wide variety of products.

Where are all of these Costco manufacturing plants? If you’ve purchased Costco’s Greek yogurt and want to know its origin, you’ve come to the right place.

Many speculate that Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy manufactures Kirkland Greek yogurt. Ehrmann has a few different in-house brands that it supplies, and also acts as a manufacturer for other retailers to sell under their own private labels. As is likely the case with Costco.

In this article, we will discuss Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy and how it became rumored that they manufacture Kirkland Greek yogurt.

Table of Contents

What Is Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy?

Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy began their production in 2011 from a facility in Brattleboro, Vermont. By 2013 the brand had a revenue of around $70 million. Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy and their partner company Casa Grande Dairy Products, LLC make money through a few different ways.

First, they produce their own dairy products under their in-house labels Green Mountain Creamery, Liebe, and Yo Yummy.

They also make yogurt for many retailers across the United States to sell under their own private labels and produce yogurt for other brands that lack the facilities to make the yogurt themselves.

In fact, Ehrmann Commonwealth is considered a leading manufacturer of private label Greek yogurt in the United States.

An article from the Vermont Business Magazine in 2016 states that they were already producing Greek yogurt for seven different retailers to sell under their private label, and were a contracted manufacturer for three brands without their own production facility.

How Do We Know Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy Produces Kirkland Greek Yogurt?

While Costco hasn’t explicitly confirmed that Ehrmann Commonwealth produces their greek yogurt, there have been rumors about this partnership for a while. As we already know, Ehrmann has a significant amount of business through manufacturing for major retailers.

It isn’t a stretch to consider Costco as one of those retailers using Ehrmann to produce their private label brand. However, there is further evidence to support Ehrmann as the Kirkland Greek yogurt manufacturer.

Peter Cohan, a well-known businessman wrote a book back in 2017 where he claimed that one of the private labels Ehrmann Commonwealth supplies Greek yogurt to was Costco!

Who Is Peter Cohan?

If you’ve never heard of Peter Cohan, you may be confused on why his word on the supplier of Kirkland Greek yogurt would mean anything. Well, he is a businessman, well-known author, and lecturer at Babson College.

He founded a management consulting and venture capital firm and has completed more than 150 consulting projects for major technology companies.

He is a lecturer at Bason college for both undergraduates and graduates and discusses business strategy, management consulting, and entrepreneurship.

Peter Cohan has written twelve books in his professional career. The one we are concerned with for the purposes of this article is called Disciplined Growth Strategies: Insights From the Growth Trajectories of Successful and Unsuccessful Companies.

In this book, Peter claims that Ehrmann Commonwealth supplies major private labels with their Greek yogurt and includes Costco in his list.

Has Costco Confirmed That Ehrmann Commonwealth Makes Kirkland Yogurt?

As we stated previously, Costco has not directly confirmed that their Kirkland Greek yogurt is produced by Ehrmann. However, it is fairly rare for Costco to confirm any rumors about their signature brand.

While they will occasionally pita company logo on their Kirkland products, this is increasingly rare. If Costco started revealing their brands it may force them to acknowledge every brand behind their Kirkland Signature label, which would defeat the mystery.

The lack of transparency around Kirkland Signature works in Costco’s favor. They are able to sell products based on the reputation of their own label, without the influence of the public opinion on the brands behind them.

In some cases, the brands may increase the public’s desire to buy the product, but in other cases, they may be discouraged.

It is in Costco’s best interest not to address rumors about their private labels. However, in some cases, we are able to put clues together to find answers.

Conclusion

When we look at the business structure of Ehrmann Commonwealth Dairy and how they make their money it is clear that they must do business with fairly large name brands.

One of the key components of their business structure is to manufacture yogurt for retailers to sell under their respective private labels.

It makes sense that one of the largest yogurt producers in the United States would partner with one of the most successful private labels in the United States.

Beyond deductive reasoning, there is evidence from Peter Cohan’s book, Disciplined Growth Strategies.

Considering Cohan is a well-known and educated businessman, it is likely that he has done his own research into the inner-workings of Ehrmann Commonwealth and Costco’s private label.

All of this points to the fact that Kirkland Greek yogurt is likely to be produced by Ehrmanns Commonwealth. It would be surprising for Costco to ever explicitly confirm this fact, but it is possible they may do so in the future.

No matter who the manufacturer is, Kirkland Greek yogurt is tasty, organic, and sold for a great deal!

So, if you can deal with a small amount of uncertainty around who the manufacturer is, consider trying Kirkland Greek yogurt next time you visit the warehouse.

References

https://thehabitat.com/life/kirkland-products-in-disguise/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrmann_Commonwealth_Dairy