Toni Hubmann, the pioneering Austrian agriculturalist who upended industrial poultry production by founding Toni's Freilandeier
and championed cage-free farming across the nation, has died at the age of 68. His family announced he passed away on Friday, August 28, 2026, in Klagenfurt.
How a Murtal Farmer Upended Industrial Egg Production
Long before terms like animal welfare and species-appropriate husbandry gained mainstream traction, Hubmann recognized that the large-scale caging of laying hens had no future. Born in Styria and taking over his family’s farm in Glein near Knittelfeld in 1987, he immediately removed his chickens from standard battery cages and set about redesigning outdoor rearing from the ground up.
Working against the prevailing norms of commercial food production, he planted chicken pastures to encourage the birds outside and built sheltered winter gardens equipped with drinking stations, sand baths, and perches for bad weather, as the outlet noted. He also eliminated the practice of beak trimming and provided his hens with nesting areas featuring natural litter.
Hubmann operated 5 individual stables holding 3,000 hens each while eventually recruiting another 150 agricultural businesses overseeing 400,000 birds to adopt his standards. He kept a ratio of one rooster for every fifty hens and pioneered the raising of brother roosters as meat chickens rather than gassing the male chicks. These foundational shifts helped clear the path for Austria’s battery cage ban, which took effect in 2009.
Building the Brand Against Resistance from Agrarian Politics
Establishing cage-free eggs in grocery store aisles required confronting skepticism from agricultural traditionalists and market players alike. Hubmann leaned into marketing and consumer psychology under the motto Essen ohne Käfig
(Eat without cages), connecting animal welfare directly to retail purchasing decisions.
He was frequently a combative voice within the industry. During the 2005 avian flu crisis, Hubmann publicly opposed extended mandatory indoor confinement orders for organic chickens, arguing against regulations he believed undermined animal health.
His efforts did not go unnoticed by watchdogs and institutions. In 1990, he participated in establishing the inspection center for appropriate farm animal housing and helped develop the Tierschutz geprüft
animal welfare label for laying hens alongside organizations such as the Association against Animal Factories (VGT).
Industry Tributes and Recognition Across Decades
As his methods transformed domestic food production, Hubmann garnered significant national accolades. He received the Golden Egg award in 2010 and the Trigos Austria prize in 2012, followed by a nomination for Austrian of the Year in the entrepreneurship category in 2013, while his brand earned Superbrand status across 2015 and 2016.
He had the courage to break new ground when it was by no means a matter of course, and he did not always reap only praise for it. Much of what Austrian egg production stands for today—high animal welfare standards, transparency, and a commitment to peasant-based agriculture—was represented with great conviction by Toni Hubmann decades ago. Markus Lukas, Chairman of Poultry Farming Austria, via Diepresse
Martin Balluch, chairman of the VGT who collaborated with Hubmann for over two decades, remembered him as a warm-hearted and resolute ally against powerful institutional interests.
He will be remembered in animal welfare as an open-minded farmer whose animals truly meant a lot to him and who did incredible pioneering work. Martin Balluch, Chairman of the VGT, via Kleine Zeitung
Economic Hardship and Transition to REWE
Despite his visionary successes, Hubmann’s later years faced severe commercial pressures. According to VGT leadership accounts, by dedicating more than half of his stable capacity to experimental projects aimed at improving hen living conditions, Hubmann ultimately lost sight of the economic stability of his enterprise and went bankrupt roughly a decade ago.
Following those economic struggles and legal proceedings, the business was sold to the REWE Group. The brand itself survived the transition; REWE has continued to distribute the products under new management since 2018, preserving the commercial footprint of the pioneer’s early innovations in supermarkets nationwide.
Lasting Impact on Modern Agriculture
Hubmann is survived by his wife, six children, and five grandchildren. Beyond family and local mourning in Styria and Carinthia, he is remembered for proving that shoppers would pay attention to farming methods, forcing a traditionally rigid agricultural sector to rethink how millions of farm animals are housed.
