Wholesale · Co-Packing & Private Label
Your brand. Our smokehouse.
We make the meat. You sell it. Stittsworth co-packs and private-labels for premium brands including Force of Nature (FON — beef & bison hot dogs), 1000 Hills, Big Fork, and Protein Outfitters. Brats, summer sausage, snack sticks, jerky, and emulsified hot dogs under your brand.
Most meat snack brands don’t own a USDA-inspected facility. They can’t — the capex is in the millions and the operating knowledge takes generations to build. What they do is design a brand, develop a recipe, and find a co-packer to make the product.
Stittsworth is that co-packer for a small set of brands. We’ve been making real sausage and smoked meat in our Bemidji facility for four generations. The same equipment and recipes that produce Stittsworth-branded product can produce yours.
Two Models
Pick your fit.
Co-Packing
You bring the recipe (or develop it with us). We make it to your spec under your brand. Your packaging, your label, your name. You control marketing, distribution, and sales.
Best for: established brands wanting to launch a new SKU, D2C startups scaling past their kitchen, restaurant brands turning their signature into retail product.
Private Label
You pick from our existing recipes (or modest variants). We produce under your label. Faster than co-packing because product development is already done.
Best for: grocery chains wanting a store-brand SKU, gift companies needing a meat product to round out their box, regional brands launching their first meat line.
What We Can Make
Our smokehouse capabilities.
- · Emulsified Hot Dogs & Wieners — beef, bison, 8oz retail packs (fresh or frozen). Fine-grind process for smooth texture, specific fat targets (bison 3-7%), real wood smoke. Produced for Force of Nature (FON).
- · Snack sticks — beef, pork, beef-pork blends, sheep casings, various flavors (including with cheese curds)
- · Summer sausage — 1-lb and 2-lb logs, fibrous casing, multiple flavor profiles. No starter cultures, more beef than pork, no fillers.
- · Beef jerky and strips — whole muscle, sliced, marinated, smoked, vacuum-sealed. Fresh (not dried-out) jerky.
- · Bratwurst — fresh or cooked, natural casings, retail pack or bulk. 60% beef / 40% pork, real wood smoke (oak, hickory, cherry), no artificial flavors. 120-day shelf life. (10oz packs per current Full Line Deck.)
- · Rope Sausage / Ring Bologna — premium beef & pork, natural casings, authentic snap and smoke.
- · Smoked bacon — thick-cut, applewood or hickory
- · Ground Beef Patties (NEW 4 flavors) — 1/3lb Bacon & Cheddar, Steakhouse, Plain Lean, Jalapeño & Cheddar. 2 patties per pack, hand-pattied for texture, whole muscle 100% beef, special bloom packaging, 1 Year Frozen, All Natural, Minnesota Grown. From Full Line Deck.
- · Game Meats — ground elk, venison (label approvals completed). Wild game processing expertise.
See the Smokehouse
Our story in motion.
Real wood smoke, whole-muscle quality, four generations of craft, and the products we make for brands like yours. Watch the full commercial →
The smoke is the signature
Real hands. Real scale.
The Process
From inquiry to first production run.
1. Discovery call.
You tell us your product, your volume, your timeline. We tell you whether it’s a fit for our capabilities and our schedule.
2. Recipe development or matching.
Co-pack: we work from your recipe or develop one together. Private label: we walk you through our existing recipes and tweak as needed.
3. Pilot run.
Small production batch for sampling, packaging approval, and shelf-life testing.
4. Production agreement.
MOQs, pricing, lead time, packaging, labeling, IP terms. Signed before first commercial run.
5. Ongoing production.
Scheduled production runs to your forecast. We make, you sell.
Full commercial + raw production reels available for qualified partners. See /commercial for the devoted media library.
Featured Co-Pack Clients
Real brands. Real production.
Force of Nature (FON)
Beef Hot Dogs (frozen 8oz) and Bison Hot Dogs (fresh & frozen 8oz retail packs).
Detailed co-pack production: coarse/fine grind process, specific temps (18–25°F), paddle mixing to emulsified hot dog texture, target 3–7% fat for bison. Multiple label approvals completed (ground elk, venison, beef ancestral). Full executed Co-Pack Agreements available under NDA.
1000 Hills (via Protein Outfitters / O’Connor Crops & Cattle)
Grass-fed beef programs and co-pack support.
Verified sourcing: Global Animal Partnership (GAP) Step 4, Organic Certification, Producer Certificates of Compliance (O'Connor Crops & Cattle). Full traceability from ranch to finished product. Supporting docs from Protein Outfitters partnership.
Big Fork
Premium sausage and brat co-packing.
Real wood smoke, natural casings, whole-muscle focus. Custom recipes under their brand using our four-generation smokehouse expertise.
Protein Outfitters
Co-pack partner for multiple premium lines.
Handles formulation, production, and compliance for high-standard brands. Full documentation and verification support (including the O’Connor 1000 Hills ranch certifications).
Honest About Fit
Who we’re NOT a fit for.
We’re a real butcher shop, not a 50-million-pound contract manufacturer. We’re not the right co-packer for:
- · Brands needing 100,000+ unit production runs
- · Brands wanting the lowest possible cost regardless of quality
- · Brands building around mechanically separated meat or extruded products
- · Brands needing extremely long shelf life through heavy preservative loads
We’re the right fit for brands building around real ingredients, real recipes, and a real story.
Part of the Wholesale Buyer’s Guide series. See also: Private Label overview.
Let’s talk about your brand.
Call (218) 751-1320 or submit a co-pack inquiry. We’ll get back within two business days.
Co-Pack Inquiry