OSI Group Success History and its relationship with McDonald’s.
OSI Group is a company and family business that has been in existence since 1909 and has been committed to offering excellent services to their clients ever since. The company has grown from a small meet supplying shop to an internationally recognized company operating in seventeen countries with more than 20,000 employees serving the seventeen facilities in existence. The company was founded by a US immigrant Otto Kolschowsky as a retail butcher shop which expanded after World War 2. He changed the company’s name to Otto & sons in 1928 and utilized every opportunity he got to grow the business.
The relationship between OSI Group and McDonald’s dates back to 1955 when the first McDonald’s shop was opened in Plaines by Ray Kroc. They had a good business relationship which appeared as an alliance between two small family businesses. McDonald’s expanded their restaurant based in Des Plaines using franchise. There was an agreement between Kroc and Arthur and Harry who were the sons of Otto to supply the fresh beef. It was an excellent agreement that was very profitable.
In a few years, Kroc purchased McDonald’s and enhanced the great relationship with Otto & Sons. McDonald’s was expanding very fast, and Otto & Sons were the leading suppliers of the resources to the restaurants. After twenty years, Otto & Sons changed their name to OSI Group and was responsible for producing meat products mainly hamburgers for McDonald’s which could be transported to distant places. The problem was solved in 1963 when there was a significant discovery in technology that improved the relationship between OSI Group and McDonald’s. The invention of flash freezing, the process Iwhich uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the food provided the grounds for expansion and effective production in the industry.
OSI Group then changed from being among a hundred McDonald’s supplier to being part of the top four suppliers after the consolidation of the franchise. In 1973, OSI Group established a store with improved machinery that was only dealing with McDonald products while Glenmark brand was for the non-McDonald’s products. OSI Group grew to supply food in the Midwest, and the company grew by 1977 it had a facility in Chicago. OSI Group joined the international market after McDonald’s.