Tallegg was founded on 1 March 1993. Its original shareholders were mostly the company’s own staff. The proportion of poultry began to increase in production while the proportion of eggs fell. In 1996 the company purchased all of the assets of Ranna Poultry Farm – its slaughterhouse, breeding bird department, two henhouses designed for chickens for fattening and its feed factory. The importance of this buy-out was reflected in the production volume of poultry: in the space of a year it almost doubled, from 2808 tonnes in 1996 to 5524 tonnes in 1997. The integration of Ranna poultry farm into Tallegg was a fundamental change in the company’s strategy, whose focus now shifted to producing and increasing the value of poultry. Neighbouring countries Latvia and Lithuania became its key export markets.
In 1999 the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development obtained a 41.4% share in Tallegg as part of an additional issuance of shares. The revenue this generated was placed entirely in new investments, which were designed to boost the quality and efficiency of production and the competitive ability of the company.
In three years the company’s profit increased seven-fold, with sales on export markets growing to 35%. Tallegg had become one of the leaders of the Estonian food industry, spending three consecutive years in the top three of the Äripäev newspaper’s Top 100 Food Companies.
The general manager of the company during this time was Ants Käsper, whose contribution to the development of Tallegg cannot be overstated.
