Giacomo "JAMES" Fassio 1885-1969
The Legacy of Fassio Egg Farms
Giacomo "James" Fassio was born in 1885 in Italy and immigrated to the United States in 1910. By March 1915, he and his wife left a bakery business in Wyoming and moved to the farming community of Hunter, Utah, in the Salt Lake Valley. There, James purchased 45 acres of land and began a new chapter as a farmer.
In the early years, finding a market for wheat was difficult. Faced with surplus grain, James traded wheat for 50 chickens—a decision that would ultimately lay the foundation for Fassio Egg Farms.
By 1925, the flock had grown to 350 laying hens, and in 1928 the poultry operation became the family’s primary source of income.
In 1942, Chester Fassio, James's eldest son, married Katherine Uzelac and took over the farm's operations. In the following years, the business expanded to 35,000 hens. A major turning point came in 1945, when a fire destroyed the coops the family had been renting. In response, the Fassios built their own facilities, a move that transformed the operation into a viable, growing business. Fassio Egg Farms soon became the leading egg producer in Utah.
The headquarters—offices, distribution center, and processing plant—remained on the original 45 acres in Hunter, which later became part of West Valley City.
In 1965, Chester’s son Dick joined the family business. He pursued a degree in Poultry Science at Michigan State University, graduating in 1969 before returning to help guide the company’s growth. Dick married Joy Schneebeli in 1974, and together they had two sons, Vinnie and Tony.
Fassio Egg Farms continued to expand. In June 1991, the company broke ground on a new facility, which by December 1992 housed 344,000 hens. This state-of-the-art ranch featured modern egg collection, processing, and storage systems. The new efficiencies allowed the company to close its Herriman location, with the last egg gathered there on August 30, 1992.
Between 1994 and 2001, Vinnie and Tony pursued higher education—Vinnie at Colorado State University (Agribusiness, 1999), and Tony at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (Operations Management, 2001). Vinnie returned to help grow the business, while Tony worked in corporate food processing before earning an MBA from Westminster College in 2006.
In 2001, the company added two new laying houses, increasing capacity by 182,000 hens for a total of 772,000. The new ranch also became an “in-line” facility, with processing and distribution centralized on-site. A Diamond 8300 Egg Grader was installed to further improve efficiency and quality. The company’s main office remained in West Valley.
Tony returned to the family business in 2004, managing finance, operations, and HR. This allowed Dick and Vinnie to focus on another expansion, which by 2005 added two more high-tech laying houses and boosted capacity by 330,000 hens.
As flock sizes grew, the need for brooder space increased. The company converted older layer buildings into new brooder facilities. Around the same time, Vinnie introduced composting to manage waste more efficiently—reducing manure volume by up to 40% and preserving nutrients in the soil.
Fassio Egg Farms has always credited its success to its people. From just three employees in 1942, the company had grown to about 40 by 2006, with many employees staying for decades. The company's average employee tenure was 10 years, with over a quarter of staff serving for 17 years or more.
From a modest wheat farm to Utah’s premier egg producer, Fassio Egg Farms stands as a testament to hard work, innovation, and family legacy. James Fassio passed away in 1969, but the enterprise he began with 50 chickens remains a thriving part of Utah’s agricultural history.
-Sheri Kimball Biesinger
