From carpet cleaning to chartering sailboats, Matthew O’Hayer started “about 50 businesses” in his quest to get rich but it was only after he stopped “trying to get rich” did he achieve his greatest success. The 68-year-old started Vital Farms because it had a “deeper purpose” that he believed in. Now, the company is the US' largest producer of pasture-raised eggs and is worth more than $450 million.
Vital Farms is also on track to bring in $465 million in revenue this year, according to company projections.
Revealing what made him start the business, Matthew O’Hayer told CNBC Make It that he was inspired by a blog post on “conscious capitalism" written by Whole Foods Market co-founder and friend John Mackey in 2006. The post spoke about seeking a balance between profitability and social responsibility.
O’Hayer then started looking up business ideas with a “deeper purpose,” and found himself drawn to the egg industry. He then discovered that about 90 percent of the egg-producing hens in the world live in cages. Those are “the most tortured farm animal in the world,” he told the publication.
In 2007, the businessman bought a 27-acre farm in Texas for $250,000 (about Rs 2 crore), and got to work. O’Hayer had a twofold goal: Raise egg-laying hens in a humane environment, and teach other farmers to do the same.
The company then reached a milestone when O’Hayer realised that consumers were willing to pay more for ethically sourced eggs. They were open to paying $6 to $10 (Rs 500 to Rs 840) -- which was multiple times the current national average of $2.04 (Rs 170) -- for a carton of a dozen of Vital Farms eggs.
“I think we’ve shocked a lot of the marketplace, to think that people would be willing to pay extra for eggs,” O’Hayer told CNBC Make It, adding: “It shows that... people really care about what they eat and where it comes from.”
There was another reason why customers chose to buy the eggs.
“It was really the taste and flavor of the egg that really drove our sales early on,” O’Hayer said. “It’s a fortunate coincidence in laying hens that when you treat them right... it actually turns out that they lay a much better egg.”
Soon, sales picked up, and the company landed its “first big customer” Whole Foods -- a subsidiary of Amazon and a supermarket chain that focuses on organic food. Now, Vital Farms has expanded to retailers including Walmart, Albertsons, Kroger, and Target and the brand appears in more than 24,000 stores across the US.
Read more: 68-year-old engineer spent 50 years working at the same company. He has one regret
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
