LWAY

Lifeway Foods, Inc.

A maker of fermented, probiotic-rich dairy drinks, Lifeway Foods is the largest producer of kefir in the United States, selling flavored and whole-milk kefir smoothies in grocery refrigerators nationwide. It was founded in 1986 by Michael Smolyansky, a Ukrainian immigrant who, after finding kefir—a staple of his native Soviet diet—missing from American stores, built his first production facility in the basement of his family's home in Skokie, Illinois. The company's name reflects its mission of bringing a healthier "way of life" to American tables.