Company
 Cal-Maine's Business
  Executive
     Officers/Directors
  Employees
  Properties and Facilities
 

We are the largest producer and marketer of shell eggs in the United States.  In fiscal year 2007, Cal-Maine sold approximately 685 million dozen shell eggs, which represented about 15.5% of domestic shell egg consumption.

Our total flock, which is comprised of approximately 23 million layers and 5 million pullets and breeders, is the largest in the United States. Layers are mature female chickens, pullets are young female chickens usually under 20 weeks of age, and breeders are male or female chickens used to produce fertile eggs to be hatched for egg production flocks.

Our primary business is the production, grading, packaging, marketing and distribution of shell eggs. We sell the majority of our shell eggs in 29 states, primarily in the southwestern, southeastern, mid-western and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. We market our shell eggs through our extensive distribution network to a diverse group of customers, including national and regional grocery store chains, club stores, foodservice distributors and egg product manufacturers. We have the largest market share for shell eggs in the grocery segment, and we sell shell eggs to nine of the ten largest food retailers in the United States.

We are also the largest producer and marketer of value-added specialty shell eggs in the United States. Specialty shell eggs include reduced cholesterol, cage free and organic eggs and are a rapidly growing segment of the market. In fiscal 2007, specialty shell eggs were estimated to represent approximately 15% of the Company’s shell egg dollar sales. Retail prices for specialty eggs are higher than standard shell eggs prices. We market our specialty shell eggs under two distinct brands: Egg-Land’s Best™ and Farmhouse. We own a 25.9% equity interest in Egg-Land’s Best, Inc., which markets the leading brand in the specialty shell egg segment. We have exclusive license agreements to market and distribute Egg-Land’s Best TM specialty shell eggs in major metropolitan areas, including New York City, and a number of states in the southeast and southwest. We market cage free eggs under our trademarked Farmhouse brand and distribute those shell eggs across the southeast and southwest regions of the United States. We also produce, market, and distribute private label specialty shell eggs to several customers. Specialty shell eggs accounted for approximately 8.7% of our total shell egg volume in fiscal 2007.

We are also a leader in industry consolidation. Since 1989, we have completed 10 acquisitions ranging in size from 600,000 layers to 7.5 million layers. Despite a market that has been characterized by increasing consolidation, the shell egg production industry remains highly fragmented. There are currently over 60 producers who each own more than one million layers, representing over 80% of total industry laying hens. We believe industry consolidation will continue, and we plan continued expansion through acquisition of existing facilities to expand Cal-Maine’s market share.