The Company
Hy-Line UK
2006 was the tenth anniversary of Hy-Line UK, which was established as a subsidiary of our US parent. From an extensive base in Studley, Warwickshire, we can produce 21.5 million female commercial chicks every year.
Six years before this celebration - in 2000 - we opened the groundbreaking Millennium Hatchery, regarded as the largest, most advanced and safest facility in Europe. The Hatchery is now recognised by Defra and the RSPCA as a model for similar sites throughout the world.
On the day this highly impressive facility opened, the total UK market was 31 million birds with Hy-Line providing about 15% of this figure. Almost immediately our sales rose to an incredible eight million – all the proof we needed, that the Millennium Hatchery represented the way forward for the industry.
It was Andrew Hignett, our Managing Director at the time, who played a significant part in securing the huge investment needed to realise this vision. And in fact, it was Andrew who found and developed the Hatchery’s site, which initially had no gas, electricity or water supply. Before long it became home to 22 million chicks and occupied a vast area the size of two football pitches. Not content with this remarkable achievement, he went on to completely refurbish the neglected farm buildings, creating a magnificent suite of attractive offices without harming the original features.
Within five years of its launch, the site was full and since then, has doubled its sales of day-old chicks, opening up new markets in Holland and Germany.
2000 also marked the modernisation of the many UK Hy-Line farms and the acquisition of new facilities. This ambitious expansion established a base of farms no more than 50 miles from the Hatchery, reducing transport costs and raising the efficiency on which our success depends. Of course, this also gave customers a unique, complete resource – something no other company can offer.
There really is nowhere in the world quite like the Hy-Line Millennium Hatchery, currently responsible for 60% of the UK chick breeding market.