A decade of growth for Angel Eggs – quality is the foundation

The stacks of trays are placed from the pallets onto a conveyor belt that transports them to the packing machine. Photos: Bert Jansen

In 2024, brothers Twan and Jeroen Engelen embarked on a journey to export hatching eggs from the Netherlands. Their export company Angel Eggs quickly gained traction, expanding exponentially by incorporating eggs from other breeders. “Customers want our hatching eggs,” said Twan. By December 2024, Angels Eggs celebrated its 10th anniversary, marking a decade of growth and success in the industry.

Twan Engelen welcomes me into a magnificent business building. “Taken over from a bankrupt rose grower,” he said. The premises have been transformed to receive, prepare and store hatching eggs for export. Storage is kept to a maximum of 3 days to ensure the eggs reach customers quickly, maintaining their quality. This efficient logistics process allows Angel Eggs to uphold its slogan, ‘The start of a healthy chick’.

Hatching eggs

In the 1990s, Twan and Jeroen joined their father’s breeding farm, which had expanded in 1989 to include its own rearing facilities. From 1996 onwards, the company grew in stages. Today, the poultry farm is comprised of a rearing location and 8 broiler breeder locations, 5 of which are owned.

In 2014, the brothers decided to take control of marketing their hatching eggs themselves. Dissatisfied with their position as breeders in the supply chain, they felt the quality of their hatching eggs was insufficiently rewarded. “We delivered our eggs – like most breeders – to hatcheries at fixed prices on a contract. Some of our eggs were exported abroad and those buyers appreciated our hatching eggs, but that wasn’t reflected in the price.”

Now, by selling the hatching eggs themselves, the quality is recognised. “Our goal is to ensure quality, create added value and get paid for it.”

The stacks of trays are placed from the pallets onto a conveyor belt that transports them to the packing machine.

Focus on quality

What began in 2014 with the export of approximately 20 million hatching eggs has grown to 180 million in just 10 years. In addition to their own hatching eggs, the brothers also export eggs from 15 other breeders, managing the process from start to finish. “We have grown because our customers want our quality hatching eggs. The trick is to get more for it. The breeders who supply us see the added value in that, because we can truly appreciate their quality.”

The quality of the hatching eggs is influenced by several factors, including the vaccination schedule of the parent stock, their treatment and the packing method. When the hatching eggs arrive in Someren in the Netherlands, they are prepared for export as quickly as possible.

The suppliers of the hatching eggs are located in the 4 Dutch provinces of Limburg, North Brabant, Gelderland and Overijssel. The furthest is in Twente, some 150 kilometers away. The eggs are collected with our own trucks every 2 days, averaging 3.5 times a week, ensuring full trucks from several breeders. “So that we don’t have too many eggs of the same age here,” Twan added.

Another tray is automatically placed on the top tray before the stacks are packed.

Focus on cost savings

The trucks are equipped with a self-developed disinfection system, ensuring that they are sanitised inside and out before loading the hatching eggs at the breeder. Angel Eggs pioneered the practice of loading hatching eggs onto pallets at the breeders, allowing more eggs to be transported in each truck and reducing handling costs. By using a slightly narrower pulp tray, the truck can accommodate an extra pallet of hatching eggs, further reducing costs. Cost reduction is crucial for the company. “If we perform a few percent better or have a few percent lower costs than our competitors, we will continue to thrive.”

The brothers also achieve cost savings in packing the hatching eggs. For example, eggs are mechanically packed in slightly narrower boxes than those used for manual packing, as the packing machine folds the box around the trays and seals it shut. This narrower box allows more pallets to fit in a truck, saving 4% on costs per extra pallet.

In addition to investing in a custom packing machine, Angel Eggs has invested in automation over the past few years, including automatic packing of hatching eggs into boxes and stamping/labelling the boxes. Angel Eggs prints data such as the export number, company number of the breeder and its own company number on the egg cartons, ensuring clarity and transparency and preventing fraud.

In the last few years, Angel Eggs has invested in, among other things, the automatic packing of the hatching eggs in boxes and the stamping/labelling of the boxes.

To almost all EU countries

Since Angel Eggs does not have its own hatchery, all hatching eggs must be exported, ensuring high quality. “We don’t want to be a competitor to Dutch companies,” said Twan. Angel Eggs exports to nearly all European countries except Italy, Switzerland, Austria and the Scandinavian countries. They also export to the Middle East, the US, South Korea, the Philippines and various African countries, totalling around 36 destinations.

The company has many regular customers, though not all purchase regularly. Exports by air are handled from airports in Amsterdam, Brussels, Frankfurt, Maastricht, Liège and Cologne. “We can go there with our own transport in one day,” he said.

For farther destinations such as Poland, Ukraine and Iraq, they use freight forwarders who reduce costs by loading return freight. “Kenya is our cheapest flight transport because we use the empty return freight of flower growers there,” Twan adds.

The logistic process is designed to store the hatching eggs for as short a time as possible, so that the quality does not deteriorate.

Art to finding buyers

The export of hatching eggs is categorised into 5 grades based on the age of the breeder flock: 26-30 weeks, 30-40 weeks, 40-48 weeks, 48-54 weeks, and 54-62 weeks. “The hatching eggs from the parent stock aged 30-48 weeks are the most sought after. Those from 48 weeks are difficult to sell outside of Europe. The trick is to find buyers for all hatching eggs in every season, every week, because our production is fairly constant.”

Twan emphasises that poultry is a seasonal product: “During Ramadan, no chicken is eaten in certain countries, and in Eastern Europe people eat game in the autumn, not chicken.”

The brothers place a new flock at their production locations every 6 weeks, while breeders whose eggs they market determine their own placement scheme. Across all locations, an average of about 80,000 breeders are placed every month, currently all Ross 308. “That’s what customers want at the moment, so we that’s what we produce.”

Although Angel Eggs benefits from stable supplies, the export side of the company must also navigate instability. “Our exports are affected by outbreaks of poultry diseases, such as avian influenza or Salmonella. This creates gaps in production and supply, and we respond to that.”