Vital Farms CEO: 'Springfield is the vast majority of our business'

Last edited 9:04 a.m., Nov. 5, 2025 [Editor's note: More information has been added.]

Springfield plays a central role in the operations of Austin, Texas-based Vital Farms Inc. (Nasdaq: VITL).

That's according to Vital Farms President and CEO Russell Diez-Canseco, who spoke to Springfield Business Journal this morning to discuss company operations following the release of the company's third-quarter financial report.

"Springfield is the vast majority of our business," Diez-Canseco said. "We are about 95% eggs, and the rest of it is butter. Just about all those eggs get packed in Springfield at Egg Central Station."

In its third-quarter financial report released this morning, Vital Farm reported a 120.5% jump in net income to $16.4 million from $7.4 million a year earlier. Diluted share earnings moved up to 36 cents from 16 cents year over year, and net revenue during the quarter rose 37.2% to $198.9 million.

"We are on a mission to become America's must trusted food company," Diez-Canseco said. "We're building a brand that consumers trust to be transparent about how we operate, to be purpose driven, to work with small family farms in a way that helps them be successful at a time when those opportunities are harder and harder to find for the small family farmer, and in a way that is respectful of all of our stakeholders."

Vital Farms opened its local plant – dubbed Egg Central Station – in 2017, and it doubled the size of the Springfield egg washing and packing facility to 150,000 square feet by 2022, according to past reporting. Egg Central Station is nearly a mile and a half northeast of the new Cold Zone plant, a $57 million facility that debuted with a ribbon-cutting ceremony in September. Cold Zone's 171,000-square-foot building at 1200 N. Haseltine Road has the capacity to house hundreds of millions of eggs for client Vital Farms, according to past reporting. 

"We've been partnered with the Erlen Group and their Cold Zone facilities for the better part of the last decade," Diez-Canseco said, noting eggs previously were held in the Erlen Group's Springfield Underground. "They're now managing outbound distribution to most of our customers."

Vital Farms eggs make the journey from some 575 family farms, many of which are in Missouri, to the Cold Zone plant, before heading to Egg Central Station for washing, inspecting and packaging, and then back to Cold Zone for storage and distribution, Diez-Canseco said.

Vital Farms employs 433 people at Egg Central Station in Springfield and is hiring for all shifts locally, Diez-Canseco said, noting the facility when fully staffed would employ 511. The company sells eggs in more than 24,000 stores.

Vital Farms plans to host an investor day on Dec. 16 at Egg Central Station to educate investors on the Springfield operation, he added.

VITL shares were trading at $35.92 as of 9:39 a.m., compared with a 52-week range of $27.91 to $53.12 per share.