History

Charles E. and Rose Hausbeck founded the company at 3444 East St. in Saginaw, Michigan. The company starts by turning the region’s local cucumber crop into pickles and then packing them into jars and barrels and delivering them to grocers throughout the state.

Charles dies of heart disease at age 44. Rose takes over the business while raising her young children. Her boys, who were the main workforce in the family business, eventually leave to serve in World War 2 or the Korean War. Fortunately, they all return safely and come back to support her and help grow the business…but at a very conservative pace.

Rose hands over the reins to four of her sons, with John serving as president. Under his leadership, brothers, sisters and cousins work at the company — and the second generation continues much as the first, focusing on retail products.

John’s son Joe returns to Saginaw after earning his bachelor’s degree in food science from Michigan State University. Joe brings with him new processes emerging in the industry that greatly improve quality and yield for fermenting cucumbers. He is instrumental in incorporating an important step into the fermentation process at Hausbeck that significantly minimizes defects.

Hausbeck’s ability to provide even higher quality pickles helps the company start growing.

With the nationwide fast-food market growing by at least 30-40%, Hausbeck lands its first fast-food contract with Burger King — a game changer for the company. For 20 years, Hausbeck’s growth follows that of Burger King.

Tim Hausbeck, John’s son and Joe’s brother, comes back to Saginaw to support the business after two uncles — Gerald and Pat — retire, bringing a finance background with him. With Burger King as the company’s biggest customer, Hausbeck decides to focus less on the retail market and seek more business with quick service restaurant chains.

Hausbeck lands Subway as a customer and begins producing banana peppers and jalapeño peppers as well. Today, peppers represent half the company’s business.

Land locked at its original location, Hausbeck begins looking for new property to expand its physical plant. Determined to stay in hometown Saginaw, Hausbeck finds an existing building with almost four city blocks of expansion room on Hess Street. Not long after, Uncle Richard retires.

Tim and Joe take over the business from their father John — Tim as president, Joe as vice president — leading the enterprise with its 100+ employees, 102,000-square-foot plant, sprawling tank yard, and billions of pickles and pepper produced with tender loving care.

An 80,000-square-foot warehouse addition is added to the Hess Avenue location, including refrigerated storage.

Hausbeck employees begin working for more than a paycheck. The company becomes 100% employee-owned, heralding in a new era where every voice matters, everyone’s work directly contributes to shared success, and customers can expect even MORE care, collaboration and pride in every product and service.