Pete & Gerry’s Organics, a portfolio company of Butterly, has acquired Farmers Hen House, a portfolio company of Benford Capital.
Benford formed Pasture Brands Holdings in December 2021 to acquire Iowa-based Farmers Hen House which sources, processes, packages and sells branded and private label eggs with a specific focus on premium varieties including organic, free-range, and pasture-raised eggs.

Farmers Hen House maintains a network of more than 70 local, primarily Amish and Mennonite, farmers to source its eggs and its products are sold to natural, supermarket, mass, and club channel customers. Farmers Hen House was founded in 1997 and operates a solar-powered, SQF-Level III facility located 20 miles southwest of Iowa City in Kalona, Iowa.
During its ownership term of Pasture Brands, Benford closed two add-on acquisitions with the buys of Iowa-based specialty egg supplier Yoder Farms in December 2021; and Pillars Yogurt, a Massachusetts-headquartered clean label drinkable yogurt brand in April 2024.

“Farmers Hen House was created nearly three decades ago with a mission to produce premium eggs as a way to keep local family farms competitive in a modern economy,” said Ryan Miller, the president and co-owner of Farmers Hen House. “We’ve grown and scaled the company while keeping with tradition, and we’re proud today to embrace a new era with Pete & Gerry’s to grow the reach of our collective certified humane eggs.”
Pete & Gerry’s Organics is a producer of organic, free-range, and pasture-raised eggs. The company became the first certified humane egg producer in the United States and the first egg producer globally to achieve Certified B Corporation status. Pete & Gerry’s was founded in 2003 and is headquartered in Salem, New Hampshire.
The acquisition adds Farmers Hen House to Pete & Gerry’s existing brands, including Pete & Gerry’s Organic, Pete & Gerry’s Pasture-Raised, and Nellie’s Free Range eggs. With the integration of Farmers Hen House’s network, Pete & Gerry’s now collaborates with nearly 300 family farms.

Both companies have experienced nearly 50% growth since 2021, driven by the surge in popularity of premium eggs. The merger will integrate over 90 family farms and a state-of-the-art processing facility in Iowa, supporting Pete & Gerry’s growth, particularly in the Midwest and Western United States. The combined entity will now operate four packing facilities, significantly boosting processing capacity and enhancing flexibility within its manufacturing network.
“Pasture Brands is a great example of BCP’s approach to scaling CPG brands,” said Ben Riefe, a managing director at Benford Capital. “Since partnering with Ryan Miller in December 2021, the key tenets of our value creation plan included building the senior management team and growing the Company’s branded sales through new customer wins. We are thrilled with this successful realization and are confident the company is well-positioned for continued success in the years ahead.”
Chicago-based Benford invests in lower middle-market companies that have revenues from $5 million to $150 million and EBITDA from $2 million to $15 million. Sectors of general interest include industrial technology, food and consumer, agriculture products and services, B2B e-commerce, niche manufacturing, value-added distribution, and outsourced business services.
“Humanely sourced eggs, like our Pasture-Raised, Free-Range, and Organic products, are rapidly gaining popularity due to their quality, consistency, and ethical appeal. As the effects of Avian Influenza continue, this trend is expected to drive a larger share of the egg market toward premium options due to enhanced biosecurity afforded by more distributed farm networks,” said Tom Flocco, the CEO of Pete & Gerry’s. “Joining together with another purpose-driven company like Farmers Hen House, which shares in our mission to protect hen welfare and the American family farm, felt like a natural fit. We’re stronger together to advance our mission toward healthy hens, healthy eggs, and a healthy planet.”
Butterfly, a Los Angeles-based private equity firm, acquired a majority stake in Pete & Gerry’s in May 2021 in partnership with British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI).
Prior to this acquisition, Pete & Gerry’s was a family-owned business for three generations, tracing its roots back to a small family farm in the late 1800s. Butterfly is an active investor in the agriculture, aquaculture, food and beverage products, food distribution and foodservice sectors. The firm was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California.
BCI is one of Canada’s largest institutional investors with more than C$250 billion of assets under management. BCI’s private equity program, with C$31 billion of assets under management, makes both direct investments and fund investments. Victoria, British Columbia-headquartered BCI invests across all major asset classes including private equity.
Brown Gibbons Lang was the financial advisor to Farmers Hen House on this transaction
© 2025 Private Equity Professional | February 4, 2025