Wholesale · Co-Packing · Snack Sticks
Snack stick co-packing.
The meat stick category is exploding — and almost every brand in it is looking for the same thing: a USDA-inspected co-packer that makes real sticks, not extruded protein tubes. Stittsworth manufactures snack sticks for outside brands in the same Bemidji smokehouse where we make our own: whole-muscle meat, natural sheep casings, real wood smoke.
Most snack stick brands don’t own a USDA plant — they own a brand, a recipe, and a customer list. The product itself gets made by a co-manufacturer. The problem: the big stick co-packers run extrusion lines optimized for cost, and the waiting lists at the good small ones run long. That’s the gap we fill.
We’re a four-generation butcher shop with a real smokehouse. When we co-pack your sticks, they’re made the way ours are — because they’re made on the same equipment, by the same hands.
Capabilities
What your sticks can be.
Meat blocks
Beef, pork, and beef-pork blends — whole-muscle meat, never mechanically separated protein.
Casings
Natural sheep casings for the snap real snack sticks are supposed to have.
Flavor systems
From classic and pepper to specialty runs — including sticks with real cheese curds.
Smoke
Real hardwood smoke in the smokehouse. No liquid smoke shortcuts.
Formats
Refrigerated fresh-smoked sticks, or shelf-stable formats — including 2 oz sticks in counter caddies/shippers built for c-store sets.
Packaging
Vacuum-sealed retail packs, bulk, and display-ready shipper programs under your label.
The Process
Inquiry to first run.
1.Discovery call — your product, volume, and timeline; our honest read on fit.
2.Recipe — yours, developed together, or matched from our existing stick line.
3.Pilot run — sampling, packaging approval, shelf-life testing.
4.Production agreement — MOQs, pricing, lead times, labeling, IP terms in writing.
5.Ongoing runs — scheduled to your forecast. We make, you sell.
The full playbook lives on our co-packing overview.
Honest About Fit
Who this is (and isn’t) for.
Right fit: snack brands built on real ingredients, D2C startups scaling past their first kitchen, retailers who want a store-brand stick with an actual story, and c-store programs that need shelf-stable sticks in display-ready shippers.
Wrong fit: brands chasing the absolute lowest cost-per-stick, products built on mechanically separated meat, or 100,000+ unit runs on day one. We’re a real smokehouse, not a 50-million-pound extrusion plant — that’s the whole point.
More formats: Jerky co-packing · Hot dog co-packing · All co-packing · Product specs
Let’s talk about your stick.
Call (218) 751-1320 or submit a co-pack inquiry. We’ll get back within two business days.
Co-Pack Inquiry