From a 1948 sausage shop in southeastern Ohio, Bob Evans Farms has grown into a Columbus-area food manufacturer and distributor of refrigerated dinner sides and breakfast foods sold nationwide. The company began when Bob and Jewell Evans made sausage for their small restaurant, and that farmstead start still shapes its best-known mashed potatoes and sausage. Today, Bob Evans Farms operates production facilities in Ohio, Michigan, Texas and Idaho as a division of Post Holdings.
Bob Evans FarmsBorn from Bob Evans’ search for better sausage in 1948, Bob Evans Farms grew from a small Gallipolis, Ohio, restaurant into a national food manufacturer rooted in its farmstead beginnings. Today, the New Albany company prepares refrigerated dinner sides and breakfast foods for grocery shoppers nationwide, with its Lima plant producing more than 100 million pounds of potato and pasta products each year.COLUMBUS, OH
Michael Foods, IncTracing its food roots to a New England family farm in 1908, Michael Foods manufactures and distributes value-added egg and refrigerated potato products for foodservice, food ingredients and retail markets. Headquartered in Hopkins, Minnesota, the Post Holdings subsidiary has grown into a multi-billion-dollar supplier and the largest processor of value-added eggs in the United States. Its research team operates a 10,000-square-foot pilot plant and test kitchen, while its manufacturing network supports ready-to-use products designed to simplify high-volume food preparation.HOPKINS, MN
Cooper FarmsFounded in 1938 by Virgil and Virginia Cooper, Cooper Farms is a fourth-generation, family-owned Northwest Ohio company that raises turkeys, hogs and egg-laying chickens while producing private-label food products. Its integrated operation includes Oakwood hatcheries that produce 15 million poults annually, a St. Henry plant processing more than 24,000 turkeys a day, and cooked-meat facilities serving customers throughout North America.OAKWOOD, OH
Prairie Star FarmsPrairie Star Farms brings together two family farms in western Ohio to produce and market eggs, growing from a family chicken farm founded in 1983 into a three-generation operation with five farms across northwest Ohio and Indiana. More than 225 employees support production, processing, packing and transportation for retailers and foodservice customers nationwide, while every facility maintains Safe Quality Food Level 3 certification. The company also puts its local roots into practice through environmental stewardship and regular egg donations to food banks and other community organizations.SAINT HENRY, OH