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The story
Early history
In 1909, German immigrant Otto Kolschowsky opened a family meat market in Oak Park, Illinois two years after his arrival in the United States. In 1917, he expanded into the wholesale meat trade and relocated the business to nearby Maywood, another Chicago suburb. The company became known as Otto & Sons in 1928. Over several decades, Otto & Sons established a local reputation for offering quality meats. Harold and Jerry Kolschowsky, along with Sheldon Lavin, were influential in expanding the company to what it is today.
In 1955, Ray Kroc opened the first McDonald's restaurant in Des Plaines, Illinois with Otto & Sons as the supplier of fresh ground beef patties. When cryogenic food processing, a method of preserving fresh food through liquid nitrogen freezing, emerged in the late 1960s, Otto & Sons accepted Kroc's offer to become one of McDonald's four meat suppliers. Later, a fifth supplier was added.
In 1973, Otto & Sons opened its first high-volume meat plant in West Chicago with specially developed patty-forming machines and liquid nitrogen freezing tunnels. At the same time, it formed a separate unit called Glenmark, for all non-McDonald's business. In 1975, the company changed its name to OSI Industries. Glenmark was later acquired by Best Chicago Meat Co. in 2011.
Expansion
Since 1990, OSI has made the following acquisitions and expansions:
In 1990, it partnered with General Milling Corporation and Alaska Milk Corporation to establish GenOSI, a Philippines-based food processing company.
In 1995, it entered the India market with the creation of its subsidiary, Vista Processed Foods.
In 1996, it acquired chicken company Moy Park, which was later sold to Marfrig Group in 2008.
In 2002, it established OSI China in Beijing.
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In 2004, it acquired G W Padley Poultry and Dove Valley.
In 2006, it acquired poultry processor Amick Farms.
In 2009, it established Weihai Poultry Development Co. as a wholly owned subsidiary in China.
In 2011, it opened a Culinary Innovation Center at its headquarters in Aurora, Illinois.
In 2013, it established DaOSI in collaboration with Doyoo Group.
In 2016, it acquired a former Tyson Foods plant in Chicago for $7.4 million.
In August 2016, it acquired a controlling stake in the Dutch company Baho Food.
In December 2016, it acquired Flagship Europe from the Flagship Food Group. In 2018, Flagship Europe was renamed Creative Foods Europe.
In 2018, the merger of Turi Foods and OSI International Foods (Australia) created Turosi Pty Ltd.
In 2019, it acquired Chicago area meat company Rose Packing Company for an undisclosed amount.
In 2011, Forbes listed OSI as America's 136th largest private company, based on annual revenues of $3 billion. In 2016, it was #58 on the Forbes list of largest private companies, at $6.1 billion. The company's rank slipped slightly to #63 on the Forbes list in 2018. For 2019, its rank came in at #66. Refrigerated & Frozen Foods magazine listed OSI Group as the sixth largest Meat/Poultry/Seafood processor in its Top 150 Frozen Foods Processors Report in March 2019.
From Wikipedia’s article on OSI Group, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5