They were the first to introduce cages for egg production in New Zealand and the first to abandon them for free-range farming, and now, under the label of the New Zealand Egg Group, the Bennik family of Levin is charting a new course for its multi-generational commitment to the industry.
Wilhemina and Harry Bennik immigrated to New Zealand from The Netherlands after World War II, and in the early 1960s, began applying the new intensive battery egg production systems of the era. Before the Benniks began cage-farming, egg production here was mostly carried out in deep-litter systems on small-scale farms.
“We’ve always striven to take the lead in the industry.”
The Benniks cranked up the scale and professionalism of egg production with their cages but, as public perceptions grew hostile to what was seen as an inhumane method of farming, they switched to free-range and barn-raised production in late 1994, 30 years before cages were banned.
That ban took effect on January 1, 2023, but by then, three generations of the family had long since converted their four farms to meet public concerns for animal welfare. In August of 2022, in recognition of the dynamics of their growing family and to ensure its longevity in the industry, the Benniks folded their four farms into a single entity as the NZ Egg Group.
“Wilhemina and Harry were the first to put birds in cages, and us kids were the first to take them out,” their son Nick Bennik says. “We’ve always striven to take the lead in the industry.”
Today, the family farms 206,000 layers at a range of sites in the Horowhenua and elsewhere around the country, supplying the two big supermarket chains, Progressive and Foodstuffs, and a myriad of other clients from local dairies to cafes and eateries.
The senior Benniks started out with the one farm in Levin which, in the mid-1980s, was taken over by sons Harry and Paul who added a second farm. Then, Nick and his wife Katherine came into the industry and bought their own farm, while sister Janie Cameron and her husband Tony added a fourth to the family holdings about the same time.
The logic of combining the holdings into a single entity brought about the creation of the NZ Egg Group in August of 2022 with 136,000 layers. The group then added a 16,000-bird farm in Otaki before acquiring the long-established FRENZ group of nine contract farmers in the Pukekohe area, adding a further 54,000 layers.
“There are three generations of the family in the business now, and a fourth on the way, and giving them all a long-term stake in the family business was the main factor in creating the group,” Nick says. “It also provided the opportunity to not only increase layer numbers but to invest in the support areas of pullet-rearing, feed milling, end-of-lay processing and liquid egg technology.”
“Since deregulation of the industry in the mid-1980s, it’s been an extremely fickle market with typically low-profit margins – so low that the industry was slow to re-invest in advance of the ban on cages in 2023.”
“That led to egg shortages around the country with some supermarkets running out of stock and others rationing supplies to customers. We were unaffected by that, and now our family group is poised to profit from more stable demand and production,” Nick says.
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