The First National Egg Brand To Stop Culling Male Chicks | Jasen Urena, NestFresh

On this episode, we're joined by **Jasen Urena**, **Vice President** at **NestFresh**, the **humane egg brand** that just became the first national brand in the US to move its entire retail lineup to in-ovo sexed Humanely Hatched eggs.  Jasen has spent 20 years with the company across marketing, sales, and operations. He breaks down what in-ovo sexing actually is, why only about 10% of Americans know what happens to male chicks at the hatchery, and how NestFresh brought AAT's Cheggy technology over from Europe and scaled it with Hy-Line North America. Accuracy is now running above 97% in live production, and NestFresh did not raise a single retailer price to pay for the transition. We get into the economics, the certification stack behind the claims, and why Jasen refuses to chase the easiest certifier. He also walks through the terminology problem in the egg aisle, why radical transparency beats polished marketing, and how NestFresh moves velocity with packaging, shelf tags, carton inserts, and TPRs when most retailers will not let you touch the set. We also dig into the 2024 packaging redesign, the six-month social teaser campaign that brought shoppers along with it, and the unusual asset-only structure behind the New Barn Organics acquisition. \--------------- **Episode Highlights:** 🥚 The 1976 founding story and 50 years of the business 🐥 What in-ovo sexing actually is and why it matters 🌍 Bringing Cheggy over from Europe and scaling it for the US 📈 Accuracy above 97% in live production 🤝 The partner stack: AAT, Hy-Line, HFAC, ASPCA, Innovate Animal Ag 💸 Why NestFresh held retailer pricing flat through the transition 🔁 Why in-ovo sexing follows the cage-free playbook 🏷️ The terminology problem in the egg aisle 🔍 Radical transparency as an education strategy ✅ Not all certifiers are equal (and why ROA took 18 months) 🛒 In-store levers when retailers will not let you touch the set 🎨 The 2024 redesign and the six-month social teaser rollout 🔭 Brands and trends Jasen is watching \--------------- **Table of Contents:** 00:00 – Intro 00:54 – NestFresh origin story and the 1976 founding 03:19 – Consolidation and the small family farm model 04:29 – What in-ovo sexing actually is 06:03 – Why male chicks get culled on day one 07:23 – The hardest part of scaling the technology 09:02 – The surprise: accuracy above 97% 09:44 – AAT, Cheggy, and Hy-Line North America 10:30 – The economics of in-ovo sexing 11:59 – The first domino and the cage-free parallel 13:15 – Why retailer prices did not go up 14:26 – Consumer confusion in the egg aisle 17:29 – Radical transparency as an education strategy 18:57 – Choosing certifiers and the Humanely Hatched trademark 23:32 – In-store strategy and shelf levers 26:00 – Promoting without eroding premium 27:00 – The 2024 packaging redesign 31:51 – Inside the New Barn Organics acquisition 36:14 – Brands and trends worth watching \--------------- **Links:** NestFresh – https://nestfresh.com/ Follow Jasen on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasen-urena-27179013/ Follow me on LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-martin-steinberg/ For help with CPG production design - packaging and label design, product renders, POS assets, retail media assets, quick-turn sales and marketing assets and all the other work that bogs down creative teams - check out https://www.kitprint.co/ **Shout out to my friends over at** Glimpse**, the go-to partner for automating retail-related back-office operations and unlocking margin trapped in invalid fees and manual processes.** **Are you in the market for a new flexible packaging partner? Check out** HD Packagin**g. Third-generation, family-owned and built for the needs of category leaders like Newman’s Own and A Dozen Cousins. Faster launches, lower costs, and no artwork fees.**