Happy Egg, based in Rogers, Arkansas, announced the completion of its merger of Egg Innovations, based in Warsaw, Indiana. Each of these companies has focused its egg production on free-range and pasture-raised hens. Both companies rely on contract farmers with relatively small flocks to produce the eggs which they collect process and market.
Happy Egg markets a variety of egg types based on how the hens are raised. The company sell eggs labeled as organic, heritage and free range. Happy Egg’s contract producers are located in Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Arkansas. Prior to the merger, the company claimed to be working with over 103 contract producers each with around 20,000 birds, for a total of around 2 million hens.
All Egg Innovations eggs come from hens that are free range and pasture-raised. Egg Innovations markets eggs under the Blue Sky Family Farms’ brand that are pasture-raised organic brown, pasture-raised non-GMO, free range organic brown, free range non-GMO brown, free range soy-free brown and free range non-GMO white. Egg Innovations had an estimated 1.7 million hens in production according to the WATTPoultry.com World’s Top Poultry Company database. Egg Innovations contracts farms located in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Because of the geographic overlap of states where Happy Egg and Egg Innovations have contract producers, combining the operations should ultimately improve logistics and reduce costs for hauling feed, moving eggs to processing facilities and distribution of eggs to customers. It is estimated that after the merger, Happy Egg will have around 3.7 million hens in production.
The unified company will be led by Alex Worley, CEO of Happy Egg.
"Today marks a transformational milestone in Happy Egg's journey," said Worley. "Small family farms are the foundation of everything we do. With Egg Innovations, we will continue to push the boundaries of what consumers expect in egg farming — delivering innovation such as pasture-raised and regenerative practices. This moment represents a significant step forward in bringing even more Americans quality eggs in which they can see and taste the difference."
