Partnership with Dutch company Kipster advances Kroger's Environmental, Social and Governance strategy

CINCINNATI – Kroger today said it is bringing “the world’s first carbon-neutral, cage-free eggs” to its stores after entering into a strategic partnership with Dutch company Kipster B.V.

The eggs will expand Kroger’s Simply Truth line of natural and more sustainable merchandise.

“Simple Truth is excited to partner with the innovative team at Kipster to further elevate our brand’s purpose to be a force for good,” said Brad Studer, senior director, Our Brands, for Kroger. “These Simple Truth and Kipster eggs will be produced in a closed-loop system that aligns with the highest health and welfare standards for people and animals. These sustainable, zero-waste eggs reflect yet another milestone in Kroger’s Zero Hunger | Zero Waste mission to help create communities free of hunger and waste.”

Kipster said construction has begun on four farms in Indiana, which will exclusively supply Kroger with eggs, starting around Christmas 2022. Kroger signed a multiyear agreement to purchase the eggs, as well as the meat of roosters.

Kipster said the Indiana farms will be replicas of its Dutch farms, the first of which was built in 2017 and which aim to elevate animal welfare “to the highest possible level.”

The U.S. farms will be built and operated by Manchester, Ind.-based Midwest Poultry Services LP, a family business whose MPS Egg Farms is among the top-10 egg producers in the United States. MPS Egg Farms is a longstanding Kroger supplier.

Kroger said Kipster’s solar-powered, cage-free production system features a “natural-like wooded environment with plenty of variety, daylight and outdoor scurrying places.”

The system uses chicken feed made from surplus food from bakeries and other sources, Kroger said, thereby reducing the climate-altering impacts of feeding the animals and minimizing emission of fine particles that can impair the health of chickens and the farmers who tend to them.

Kipster aims to help create a food system in which animals do not pollute but rather help clean up byproducts of food production. In this way, chickens upcycle food waste into eggs, meat and fertile manure, Kroger said in announcing the partnership. Kipster is the only poultry farmer in the world to farm with such a high level of circularity, Kroger noted.

The partnership advances Kroger’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategy – Thriving Together – which articulates the company’s commitment to driving positive changes for people, the planet and natural systems. It also reflects the latest progress on the company’s phased transition to cage-free eggs.