Eat Just the latest iteration of a series of companies founded by Josh Tetrick has announced that 45 employees out of a total workforce of 260 will be laid off.

Just Egg recently announced that it had achieved parity in production cost with conventional eggs, although this was a hollow claim based on an unprecedented rise in wholesale price during January and also inaccurate.  Given the subsequent trend in restoration of normality in the price structure for liquid and shell eggs, Eat Just will now be competing once more at a price disadvantage.

Given a shelf price of $4.99 for a 12 oz. container of Just Egg the product is clearly non-competitive against conventional shell eggs. It is calculated that the product is 4.1 times as expensive as the liquid from a dozen large eggs at $2 per dozen, 2.7 times at $3 per dozen and 2.1 times with eggs priced at $4 per dozen.

According to a statement by Andrew Nyes head of Global Communications and Public Affairs, the Company sold the equivalent of 360 million eggs over the past 12 months.  This represents the output of 1.2 million hens placing the market share of Just Egg at slightly less than 0.4 percent of all eggs produced.  Nyes confirmed that Eat Just is not profitable and the reduction in workforce is intended to reduce the cost of production together with other initiatives.  Despite the positive spin placed on the reduction in labor force, it is clear that the market for Just Egg and other plant-based substitutes is limited. This is a long way from the unsubstantiated boast made by Tetrick decades ago that his products would displace conventional egg production from hens. Even following depopulation of 44 million hens in 2022 the U.S. had 303 million hens in production last week.