Our Story
The Company
Big O Smokehouse celebrates our Michigan heritage and the wild places where we work and play. Our highest goal is to provide our customers with the very best smoked fish, meats, jerkies, and sausages you’ve ever had! We want you to be so pleased, that you don’t hesitate telling other people about us.
Our Story
To understand our story. We gotta go back a few decades.
Our story began with our great grandfather, Paul Osterhaven, who began his career working in the seafood business in Grand Rapids, Michigan. A family business soon transpired as his son, and our grandfather, Bruce SR, followed suit and founded a local seafood fish market that evolved into a distribution center that is widely recognized today as Superior Foods.
The vocation for providing quality and authentic seafood products continued within the bloodline and grandpa Bruce’s son, Keith Osterhaven, devoted his time working for the family run business. With his knowledge in the market and knack for creating recipes from scratch, Keith sought to develop his own creation with the support of his father. In 1997, our father opened the doors to a smoked fish company and market in Caledonia, Michigan. Big O’ Smokehouse began serving its community with the highest of quality smoked fish and meat products.
In 2001, Keith’s son, Bruce JR began working operations at the smokehouse. As demand for authentic and flavorful seafood and meats continued, Bruce helped expand varieties available and the smokehouse now provides an array of jerkies, sausage, hand-crafted dips and more. Not too long later, Kurt, Bruce’s younger brother, came on board after graduating with an accounting degree and in 2018 Kurt and Bruce took over the day to day operations. Big O’ Smokehouse’s foundational commitment to quality, excellence and hard-work were instilled by our grandfather and father and is how the company maintains our legacy in the family and within the community.
The People
Big O’s is run by the original founders’ youngest sons Bruce and Kurt, with support from their amazing team. Bruce and Kurt grew up in a country setting just outside of the small town of Caledonia, Michigan. With their grandfather being the founder of a large local seafood business and their father opening the smokehouse while they were young. Bruce and Kurt grew up in the smokehouse together. Our company culture is defined through our Mission Statement and Company Core Values, and has helped Big O’ hire and maintain a loyal and engaged workforce with decades of combined experience in smoking meats and fish. We reward our employees through competitive pay and recognition. They are all part of the Big O’ family!
Our Mission
At Big O’s we smoke high quality, locally sourced foods. We do it the right way, not the easy way. Making it good for the earth and for the table.
Core Values
- God, the church and giving back to ours and our employees communities.
- Service the customer above all else
- Provide the very best quality at good prices.
