Farmers Hen House announces acquisition by Pete & Gerry’s Organics

Kalona eggs will become third brand for New Hampshire-based specialty egg co.

By The News Staff with Ryan Miller
Posted 1/31/25

KALONA

Founded in 1997 in Kalona, Farmers Hen House started with a simple mission: to provide high-quality eggs while promoting sustainable farming practices.

Today, after 28 years in …

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Farmers Hen House announces acquisition by Pete & Gerry’s Organics

Kalona eggs will become third brand for New Hampshire-based specialty egg co.

Posted

KALONA

Founded in 1997 in Kalona, Farmers Hen House started with a simple mission: to provide high-quality eggs while promoting sustainable farming practices.

Today, after 28 years in business, progress for the company means taking a new step forward: as of this month, Farmers Hen House has been acquired by Pete & Gerry’s Organics, a leading specialty egg company based in New Hampshire.

The combined company is now the largest branded Free-Range/Pasture-Raised business in the industry. It consists of three labels: Pete & Gerry’s Organic, Nellie’s Free-Range, and Farmers Hen House.

The Farmers Hen House facility near Frytown will be one of four locations, the others located in New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

“We felt like this was a great opportunity to join with one of the largest branded companies in the specialty egg business,” Ryan Miller, CEO of Farmers Hen House, said. “The future is bright for the growth of specialty egg production, and there will be opportunity for more farmers to get into the business throughout this region and more eggs to be processed here in Kalona.”

Miller noted that the merger may result in the need for an additional 35 to 40 employees at the rural Kalona facility. This past year, they added a 4,500 sq. ft. cooler, which allows them to process 1.2 million eggs a day.

Combining operations is also a good thing for Pete & Gerry’s Organics.

“At a time when consumer preferences are rapidly shifting toward premium eggs, this acquisition strengthens our collective position as a leading producer of Organic, Free-Range, and Pasture-Raised eggs,” Tom Flocco, CEO of Pete & Gerry’s, said.

Progress over time

Farmers Hen House was originally created by Eldon T. Miller, who got the first organic growers group started in Kalona in the early 1990s. He saw organics as a way for smaller farmers to add value to their products and remain viable into the future.

Over the years, the small operation grew into a leader in the organic and free-range egg industry.

In 2000 Mark Miller purchased the company from Eldon and continued to grow the business. In those early days, almost all the eggs produced on local farms were organic, but soon after, a couple of barns of cage-free hens were added to meet growing customer demand in more conventional stores. At that time, the industry was small and not many stores outside of natural food stores carried organic eggs.

The company continued to add farmers and expand its market by selling organic eggs to conventional egg companies that needed specialty eggs to sell in addition to their caged white eggs.

Ryan Miller, Mark’s son, joined the company in 2004 to help with business operations and growth. Over the next several years, the company continued to grow under the Farmers Hen House brand name, but more so through partnerships with other egg companies.

Ryan became co-owner in 2010, and growth continued over the next several years.

Demand for specialty eggs eventually caught on in traditional grocery chains, and Farmers Hen House decided the best strategy going forward was to make sure the hens providing all eggs for all their brands had outdoor access. That meant cage-free hens became free-range, and conventionally fed birds were given access to the outdoors just like the organic hens.

As consumer demand for organic and free-range eggs grew, the company began partnering with a wider network of farmers. They began working with farms in Bloomfield, Sigourney, Charles City, and Northeastern Missouri. Today their network includes about 95 farms with a total hen count of 1.2 million – a number that is expected to jump to about 1.5 million by the end of 2026.

Proving family farms with access to the specialty egg industry is one of Farmers Hen House’s main functions, and they especially enjoy when they can help young farmers get started.

Making sure their markets have long-term stability for those farmers became a priority, and in 2015 Farmers Hen House started focusing more on their retail brand and working directly with retailers. They put more resources into sales and marketing as a result.

In 2021, Mark and Ryan partnered with Benford Capital, a private equity firm in Chicago, by selling them a majority stake in the business.

“In 2021, I set out to find a financial partner with a demonstrated track record of scaling food and consumer brands,” Ryan explains. “Partnering with Benford Capital has been instrumental in accelerating our growth.”

That growth catapulted Farmers Hen House to becoming the 4th largest brand in the specialty egg market and their eggs being sold by retailers coast to coast. Farmers Hen House eggs are on grocers’ shelves in all 48 contiguous states; their largest customer is Costco, and Florida and California are their top-selling states.

It will be exciting to see where joining Pete & Gerry’s Organics takes Kalona eggs next.

Farmers Hen House, Kalona, acquisition, purchase, sale, Pete & Gerry's Organics, January, 2025