The business holding GLOBAL EGGS has acquired, through its Spanish subsidiary HEVO GROUP, the Navarrese egg production company GRANJA LEGARIA, further expanding its position in the laying hen sector.
Guadalajara/Legaria/São Paulo – 20 May 2025
The business holding Global Eggs, led by Brazilian magnate Ricardo Faria, popularly known as “O Rei do Ovo”, has completed the acquisition of Navarrese company Granja Legaria. The transaction, announced on 20 May 2025, was carried out through Hevo Group, Global Eggs’ Spanish division. The holding GLOBAL EGGS, fiscally domiciled in Luxembourg, reports a total annual production in 2025 of 13 billion eggs and projected total revenues of USD 2.5 billion per year.
This strategic acquisition consolidates Hevo Group‘s position as one of the three largest egg-producing companies in Spain, now reaching a total of 4.4 million hens and an annual production of close to 100 million dozens.
A global giant in expansion
Global Eggs is a business holding domiciled in Luxembourg and controlled by Ricardo Faria. In November 2024, Faria became the majority shareholder of Hevo Group, integrating it into the holding that already included Granja Faria in Brazil. Subsequently, in May 2025 Global Eggs acquired Hillandale Farms, the fourth-largest egg producer in the United States.
The Spanish division, Hevo Group, headquartered in Guadalajara, now brings together five prominent companies in the poultry sector: Dagu, Huevos Roig, Granja Agas, Avícola Larrabe and, with this latest transaction, the Navarrese company Legaria. Hevo Group is engaged in an active national expansion process that includes farm modernisation, increased productive capacity, improvements to grading centres, and new acquisitions.
The origins of Hevo Group date back to 2021, when Grupo Dagu and Ous Roig announced their merger. Shortly afterwards, in 2023, the acquisition of poultry company Granja Agas took place, with the aim of becoming the leading national egg producer, both in terms of scale and presence in retail and distribution, reaching at that point 3.5 million laying hens and doubling its turnover compared to 2018.
In May 2023, the company took a further step with the creation of Hevo Group as a new corporate identity. In November 2024, Hevo Group was acquired by Ricardo Faria, who made it his gateway into the European market. The acquisition was carried out through his Luxembourg-based holding, Global Eggs.
The acquisition of Legaria reinforces Global Eggs’ presence in the European and Spanish markets. The acquired Navarrese company has approximately 350,000 birds according to one source, although other sources indicate that its two houses have a capacity of around 320,000 hens. The transaction value has not been disclosed.
This move in Spain comes just a few weeks after Global Eggs closed a deal in the United States to acquire Hillandale Farms for a total of USD 1.1 billion, one of the five largest egg producers in the country. Hillandale Farms houses close to 20 million laying hens. Global Eggs has indicated that it is in talks with other European producers, underscoring its growing interest in the continental market through acquisitions.
Granja Legaria: history and Navarrese legacy
The acquisition of Legaria by a global giant incorporates the history and legacy of a long-established Navarrese family business with a distinguished track record in the sector. Granja Legaria was founded in 1964 by Sabino Legaria. Its beginnings were in Estella (Navarre) with a farm housing just 10,000 hens. The company’s growth prompted the relocation of its facilities to the small village of Legaria, a settlement of only 85 inhabitants near Ancín, which has no family connection to the founders.
Until this acquisition, the company was led by Roberto Legaria, son of founder Sabino Legaria and current general manager. Granja Legaria is recognised as the largest egg farm in Navarre and a benchmark in the poultry sector. Its core activity, for over 50 years, has been the production of hen eggs.
Roberto Legaria was responsible for tripling the farm’s production from 2011 onwards. This was achieved through a major modernisation of the facilities, with an investment of close to 9 million euros. This renovation was driven, in part, by the need to comply with European animal welfare regulations ahead of the 2012 deadline. The modernisation included the construction of two houses with ten tiers of cages each, with a total capacity for 310,000 hens according to one source, or 320,000 according to others.
The Granja Legaria complex is extensive and fully integrated. In addition to the two laying houses, it has an egg grading and packing centre, offices, a finished product warehouse, a box and carton store, an on-site feed mill for supplying the flock, and a dedicated area for manure management and the production of organic fertiliser.
The eggs produced at Legaria have a considerable commercial reach. They are marketed domestically in the neighbouring provinces of Navarre and exported to Europe, primarily to the United Kingdom and France through third parties. They also reach other countries including Hungary, Japan, Iran, Italy, and Germany.
The integration of Granja Legaria into Global Eggs, through Hevo Group, marks a turning point for this family business and underscores the accelerating change and “reshaping” of the entire global egg industry, driven by a pace of mergers and acquisitions that until very recently was entirely unprecedented among egg producers.