I continue to be amazed by how few players control how much of Canada's egg industry.
For example, I did not know until recently that Bill Gray of Gray Ridge Eggs and Aaron Kwinter of Global built a new plant, called Egg Solutions, in Etobicoke. Gray also "sold" his Lashbrook egg-processing business in Elmira to Global-Egg Solutions. Then they sold the old Global plant to a group that includes Phil Carnavale who used to be a partner with Kwinter.
This Supreme Egg business is, in turn, connected with Nutri-Ouef of Quebec which is partly owned by Gray.
Nutri-Ouef has, of course, recently purchased Best Choice Eggs from Svante Lind, thereby ending years of competition with Gray and Joe Hudson of Burnbrae Farms Ltd. Lind is suing both of them and the Ontario egg board for conspiring to drive him out of the egg-grading business.
Burnbrae is the largest egg-producing, egg-grading, egg-processing company in Canada. Gray is second.
They both operate nationally.
In British Columbia, for example, Gray is partner with a co-operative that grades about 80 per cent of the province's eggs. The new plant they are building includes space for the dominant egg processor in the province. Burnbrae has a relatively small egg-grading business on the island.
Sparks Farms, whose facility recently burned down, is the dominant grader in Alberta and is also a partner with Nutri Ouef.
One question this raises for me is whether Burnbrae and Gray used Nutri Ouef to buy Best Choice. The general manager of Nutri Ouef told me they're not investors in that business, but how do you draw lines between such elaborate networks of partnerships and joint ventures?
