December 22, 2014
Hendrix-ISA to expand layer business in the US
ISA (Layer Business Unit of Hendrix Genetics) is planning to purchase Midwest Farms LLC (part of Midwest Food Association) and will acquire the Pennsylvania-based hatchery Pennovo (Wagner family, formerly Penn Embryo) and the Virginia-based hatchery, Brickland (MFA).
ISA will create a new company, ''Hendrix-ISA'', to serve the US market with premium quality layers. The new company will have the capacity to produce close to one million commercial layers a week.
US egg producers will have direct access to the breeding company through Hendrix-ISA. That direct access will provide the opportunity for the team to review field results and breed expectations, thereby giving the layer industry a voice on future breeding programmes that will benefit US egg producers.
Hendrix-ISA offers the opportunity to directly purchase premium quality, day-old chicks. The state-of-the-art facility Pennovo will produce up to 500,000 layers per week, while the Brickland Hatchery has a production capacity of up to 400,000 layers per week.
Hendrix-ISA will focus on its leading products Shaver White and Isa Brown. In addition, its Bovans, Dekalb, Hisex and Babcock brands will be distributed throughout the company as parent stock and as commercial layers. Bovans White and Brown and Dekalb White products will remain available in the US via Centurion Poultry Inc.. Distribution of ISA products in the US from Merrill, Westwind, Pitman and other Hendrix affiliated hatcheries will remain the same.
"For a long time, the US market has had limited choices in egg layer genetics," said Peter Mumm, the new managing director of Hendrix-ISA, LLC. "Now the layer industry has another choice. The excellence of Hendrix-ISA''s genetics, our team of poultry specialists, and our world-class breeding and hatchery facilities will provide the US market with the highest quality in genetics and service."
Thijs Hendrix, founder of Hendrix Genetics, said, "It (the Hendrix-ISA initiative) fits perfectly in our strategy to selectively integrate further into the supply chain, to grow in the US and to work closely with our strategic partners".