Versova Management, a holding company based in Sioux Center, Iowa, and Proterra Investment Partners, a private equity firm in Minneapolis, have purchased Willamette Egg Farms' operations and assets in Oregon and Washington.

CANBY, Ore. — For the second time in six years, Willamette Egg Farms is under new ownership.

Versova Management, a holding company based in Sioux Center, Iowa, and Proterra Investment Partners, a private equity firm in Minneapolis, has purchased Willamette Egg Farms’ operations and assets in Oregon and Washington.

The deal was announced Dec. 3. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Willamette Egg Farms began in 1934 as a family-owned business. It was acquired by Michael Foods, a subsidiary of Post Holdings, in 2015.

Today, the company has three egg farms — including two in Canby and Molalla, Ore., and one in Moses Lake, Wash. — along with two feed mills. The farms together raise more than 3 million hens, producing about 60 million dozen-egg cartons every year.

Established in 2016, Versova Management provides shared management and services for multiple family-run egg farms in Iowa and Ohio. It has grown to become the third-largest U.S. egg producer, with about half of its total production sold to Wal-Mart.

Versova recently spun off a new company, called Northwest Farms, that will assume day-to-day management of Willamette Egg Farms’ facilities.

“We’re thrilled for this opportunity,” said J.T. Dean, president of Versova Management. “This fit a lot of needs and interests for us.”

Dean said the acquisition will not affect any of Willamette Egg Farms’ approximately 200 employees.

“It’s a really good team,” he said. “We look forward to getting running out of the gate.”

With Willamette Egg Farms in the fold, Dean said Versova is poised to increase its overall volume by 10%, including potentially a 35% increase in cage-free and specialty eggs.

”Without question, the future of egg production will require this kind of investment and vision to maintain an abundant, affordable supply of nutritious eggs; to meet changing customer and consumer expectations; and to provide jobs and economic value in local communities,” Dean said.

Proterra Investment Partners provided financing for the deal from its sustainable agriculture fund. The firm and its nearly $4 billion in assets started in 2016 as a fund manager for Black River Asset Management, a subsidiary of the food conglomerate Cargill.

Mike LeSage, the firm’s managing director, said it was natural for Proterra to invest in cage-free egg production based on consumer demand and new state laws mandating cage-free hen housing.

”Further supporting our focus is the knowledge that eggs are one of the most nutrient-dense foods on the planet and serve as a highly affordable source of protein for consumers,” LeSage said in a statement.

Both Oregon and Washington have passed laws banning the sale of eggs from caged chickens by Jan. 1, 2024. Egg farms must remove cages and adapt facilities where hens can exhibit natural behaviors, such as providing scratch areas, perches, nest boxes and dust bathing areas.

The laws exempt farms with fewer than 3,000 egg-laying hens.

Dean said the company hopes to begin converting the Moses Lake farm to cage-free by the beginning of next year, depending on how quickly they can secure state and local permits.

That is no small investment, Dean said, costing an estimated $60 per hen. With about 1.5 million hens at Willamette Egg Farms in Moses Lake, that adds up to $90 million.

“We’re under a very tight timeframe as it is to make these conversions,” he said. “We want to make sure we’re doing this the right way.”

Greg Satrum, one of the original family owners of Willamette Egg Farms before it sold to Michael Foods, said he is pleased to see the farms return to private ownership while being managed by other families with deep roots in egg production.

“This is good news for Oregon and Washington and for the local communities where our farms operate,” Satrum said.