A recent SEC filing provided data on the present production facilities, output and financials of Cal-Maine Foods, the only public-quoted “pure play” egg producer.

Cal-Maine Foods was founded in 1957 by a visionary, the late Fred Adams and has grown to be the largest egg producer worldwide with 44 million hens. 

• Cal-Maine Foods operates 44 production farms with 26 feed mills and has a packing capacity approximating seven million eggs per hour. 
• Pullet rearing farms associated with production complexes receive day-old chicks from two hatcheries supplied by three parent breeding units. 
• During FY 2023, the company will produce 61 percent commodity white and brown eggs from caged flocks, seven percent will be free-range and pasture raised, seven percent nutritionally enhanced and 24 percent cage-free either conventional or certified organic.
•  Cal-Maine Foods has progressively decreased the volume of outside purchases from 26 percent of sales during FY 2000 to a low of six percent in FY 2021.
• The Company has transitioned units or complexes from conventional cages to cage-free, using both aviaries and floor systems, consistent with market demand.  To date, the company has spent $609 million on conversion and has allocated an additional $90 million through 2024.
• Growth has been achieved through expansion of existing facilities and acquisition of approximately 15 million hens since 2015.  Cal-Maine Foods has acquired and integrated 24 producers since 1989.

• During FY 2023, Cal-Maine Foods sold 1,147 million dozen of which 70 percent were conventional eggs.  Thirty-five percent of production was in the form of specialty eggs that generated 32 percent of sales value at an average unit price of $2.40 per dozen.
• Thirty-four percent of revenue is derived from the company’s single largest customer with 50 percent from the top-ten major customers including the largest U.S. grocery chains with broad diversity.
• Cal-Maine services 60,000 unique retail locations directly or indirectly through distribution centers with 890 SKUs through a range of private label (13 percent) Cal-Maine brands (14 percent) and Eggland’s Best (24 percent) with the remainder non-branded. 
• The top five producers, including Cal-Maine, represent 42 percent of hens in production.  The remaining 58 percent is divided among a large number of producers some of whom could be candidates for acquisition.  Sixty companies hold more than 250,000 hens.
• Since FY 2000.  Cal-Maine Foods has distributed $690 million in dividends although exercising a conservative policy withholding dividends during quarters with negative earnings.

• In 2022, Cal-Maine Foods acquired Meadow Creek Investments to complement existing breaking facilities to provide a hard-cooked egg operation with an annual capacity of 32 million pounds.  This acquisition allowed Cal-Maine Foods to participate in commercial food service and to make optimal use of medium-sized eggs from young flocks.

Quarterly production and financial data for the company can be retrieved by entering “Cal-Maine” in the SEARCH block.