Who we are

The company is founded by Otto Kolschowsky as a family-owned meat market and butcher shop in the Chicago area.

Meat market expands to wholesale meat trade and relocates to another Chicago suburb. The Kolschowsky sons join the business.

Business grows into a stable, successful local operation and rebrands to Otto & Sons.

Otto & Sons begins supplying fresh ground beef patties for new quick serve restaurants (QSR).

Otto & Sons builds its first plant in West Chicago which used cryogenic food processing to preserve food through nitrogen freezing.

Company begins operations beyond supplying to QSRs and establishes a separate unit for the new Glenmark brand, which would later be sold in 2011.

OSI begins a decade of international expansion, opening facilities in Germany, Spain, Brazil, Austria and Italy.

As Lavin becomes Chairman and CEO, OSI begins period of significant growth in the early 1980s, through expansion and joint ventures in new countries and other sectors of the food industry.

OSI begins its entry into the Asia Pacific region with joint ventures in Taiwan and the Philippines, and operations in China. China becomes a focus for OSI’s international growth.

Three years of expansion to Hungary, Poland, India and United Kingdom, providing greater depth to OSI’s product line and services.

New U.S. facility opens to produce bacon, sausage, and hot dogs. A beef and pork processing facility in the Ukraine also opens.

OSI spends two years establishing wholly foreign-owned enterprises (WFOE) and joint venture entities in China, and enters the fresh produce business.

Poultry operations are added through the acquisition of vertically integrated poultry company. Establish beef deboning and slaughter operations in Europe.

A new dry sausage operation opens in the U.S.

Production facilities open to produce salsa, beans, and tofu products in the western U.S. and poultry in China. A Canadian company is also acquired. OSI opens culinary innovation centers in the U.S. and China and a global R&D center in the U.S.

OSI opens a European regional office in Germany and acquires two more companies to expand its European footprint.

OSI Group, LLC is a 100-plus year old, privately held corporation that is a global leader in supplying value-added protein items and other food products to leading foodservice and retail brands.