Construction begins on Europe's largest GP Hatchery 18 Aug 2008

The site of the new Grand Parent hatchery is in Hilbersdorf in Eastern Germany, and will have a capacity of 1 mln eggs per week. The new facility will enhance Aviagen's European supply network, which provides customers with top-class breeding stock from hatcheries in the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, France and Hungary, as well as via key European distributors based in Northern Ireland, Spain, France, Sweden and Finland.

The construction of the hatchery falls under the management of Ross EPI, Aviagen's Central European operation, who have been working diligently with suppliers, architects and the German authorities to ensure that the hatchery contains the most state-of-the-art technology and meets Aviagen's standards of biosecurity.

Construction began in June and the hatchery is expected to be operational by January 2009.

Patrick Claeys, general manager of Ross EPI: “Being located closer to customers means that chicks will spend less time in transit, leading to improvements in chick quality, welfare and uniformity. Customers will also benefit from the added flexibility and increased capacity that the new hatchery offers, providing even more security of supply to customers in Europe and throughout the world.”