O'Hayer: Scalable pasture-raised eggs require a franchise contract model
Matt O'Hayer · Vital Farms: Matt O’Hayer. How a serial entrepreneur re-branded the egg · Mar 23, 2026 · at 33:13
Vital Farms founder Matt O'Hayer recounts pitching John Mackey on how Whole Foods could successfully source consistent pasture-raised eggs nationwide.
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“Farmers aren't going to give you the consistency you want. You need to have consistent rules, and you need to create what I would call like a franchise model. An upside-down franchise, and I had the experience in franchise, like, how would you do it? And I said, well, I would recruit farmers to follow our system exactly. I'd put them on a contract, and I'd buy all their eggs under that contract, but they'd have to follow the rules that we set for them, and then I would pack all their eggs into a single brand and sell them under that one brand, and I would make sure the farmers did their job right like you would have, like a franchise would.”
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