Lakeside Foods is a premier producer of high-quality food products for the retail, food service, and industrial sectors. Our diverse food products include canned and frozen vegetables, frozen appetizers and seafood, canned meats and pet food, canned beans, whipped toppings and sauces. Our processing facilities meet the highest level of food safety certification.
We promise our employees a culture that values mutual respect and different points of view and leaders who develop and execute clear, aligned action plans.We enjoy being creative, productive and working together.
We promise our customers the utmost focus on quality, food safety and customer service, while committing to innovation and new avenues of growth and profitability.
A Humble Beginning
Albert Landreth, an entrepreneur from Pennsylvania, came to Manitowoc in the 1800s to grow vegetable seed. He began experimenting with the canning process at a small hotel on the shores of Lake Michigan. In 1887 he built a canning plant and packed Wisconsin’s first commercially canned peas from his local crop. He sold his product to local markets under the “Lakeside” brand.
Lakeside established a partnership with the University of Wisconsin’s College of Agriculture, which led to advancements in quality control and built a reputation for innovation. Close partnerships with local farmers improved planting schedules and produced high-quality crops, including green beans, corn, carrots, beets, tomatoes and even sauerkraut. The company grew over the years by opening new facilities, purchasing existing canning plants from smaller companies, and expanding into new product lines.
Lakeside Today
Since our founding, we’ve operated continuously as the successor to Landreth’s early venture and the Lakeside name he established. We remain Wisconsin-based and family-owned. We employ nearly 1,200 people year-round and hire 1,000-plus seasonal employees during the summer harvest season. We operate 15 locations in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Ohio and partner with retail and foodservice customers across the U.S., as well as some international export business. Our products are on the shelves of all major U.S. retailers under their store label offerings.