Producer
Hubbard Breeders
Broiler genetics company founded 1921; acquired by Aviagen Group (EW Group) from Groupe Grimaud in 2018. Hubbard's sale was explicitly triggered by HPAI-related export bans that 'significantly affected international genetic sales, especially in Asia and Middle East.' Now operates as an independent subsidiary of Aviagen, maintaining its own product lines (FLEX, CLASSIC, H1, JA specialty ranges) and European/American operations. Market share previously ~5-10% standalone; now consolidated under EW Group's ~44%+ broiler genetics umbrella. Headquartered in Brittany, France; US Americas office in Pikeville, Tennessee.
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Inputs supplied
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Goods downstream
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Facilities
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Stories
Where they make it
2 facilities
Hubbard Americas Office (Pikeville, Tennessee) →
USPikeville, Bledsoe County, Tennessee · farm
Hubbard's North and South America office; located in Pikeville, Tennessee — the same town as Aviagen's new $100M feed processing plant (2022). The Cobb HQ (Siloam Springs, AR) is 400 miles west; Aviagen's Crossville pedigree farms are 80 miles north. Pikeville sits at the heart of the US broiler genetics concentration zone.
Hubbard Le Foeil Nucleus & European HQ (Brittany, France) →
FRLe Foeil, Quintin, Côtes-d'Armor · farm
Hubbard's founding and global headquarters; nucleus pedigree operations for FLEX, CLASSIC, H1, and JA specialty lines. Brittany, France is historically Europe's most intensive poultry production region. Post-Aviagen acquisition (2018), Hubbard continues operating here as an Aviagen subsidiary with its own distinct product portfolio targeting European welfare-focused (Better Chicken Commitment) and specialty markets.
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Commodity Broiler Genetics (Classic Lines)
60%Specialty & Colored Broiler Genetics
30%Genetic Research & Development
10%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Incident2016
Hubbard Genetics was sold to Aviagen (EW Group) in 2018 from Groupe Grimaud specifically because HPAI-related export bans 'significantly affected international genetic sales, especially in Asia and Middle East, and put at risk Hubbard's development.' The disease risk of managing an independent pedigree operation in an era of global HPAI pandemics was commercially unsustainable for a smaller player. Hubbard's absorption by EW Group turned what was nominally a duopoly (Cobb vs. Aviagen) into an even more concentrated market: EW Group now controls Aviagen's and Hubbard's genetics simultaneously, leaving only Cobb-Vantress (Tyson) as a meaningful independent genetics company.
Zootecnica International ↗Did you know2024
Hubbard is primarily known as a commodity broiler genetics company (cheap fast-growing chickens for industrial production), but its "colored broiler" specialty strains — slow-growing, hardier birds in red or brown plumage — are the genetic foundation for France's Label Rouge and similar premium free-range programs across Europe and Japan. The same genetics company enabling the lowest-cost protein production on earth simultaneously underpins the premium artisanal poultry sector where chickens cost 3-4x commodity prices. Hubbard's parent Aviagen (EW Group) also controls Ross (the world's most widely used broiler line), meaning EW Group provides the genetics for both poles of the global chicken market.
Hubbard Breeders ↗Origin2023
Hubbard Breeders was founded in 1921 in Walpole, New Hampshire by Ira Hubbard, one of the earliest formal broiler genetics programs in the US at a time when most chickens were still backyard-kept dual-purpose breeds. Hubbard was repeatedly acquired across the 20th century (Merck Animal Health, then ISA, then Groupe Grimaud) before landing with Aviagen (EW Group) in 2018. The 2018 sale was triggered by HPAI export bans that gutted Hubbard's international genetic sales and forced Groupe Grimaud to divest.
Hubbard Breeders ↗