By Hub City Times staff

MARSHFIELD – Hewitt’s Meats was recognized as the Marshfield Area Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s 2020 Small Business of the Year. A breakfast reception and ceremony were held Sept. 2 at Holiday Inn, for a business that’s now been operating for more than 80 years.

John Franseen and his wife Amanda took over the family-owned business two years ago, and they’ve been busy, starting with a new plant and retail store on the city’s south side.

“Since we’ve moved into that new store, we’ve created over 50 new products that we offer. In 2019, we started our online store,” Franseen said. “We started in earnest shipping gift boxes across the country; the products are shipped anywhere from Florida to Alaska, from California to New York.

“We also sharpened our focus in 2019. We sold our custom processing plant, and we stopped processing venison, both of which have been a huge part of our history; but, we knew to move forward and grow our company, we needed to sharpen our focus and look at what was going to grow our company into the future, what was sustainable, how we could best serve the community. So, we sold our original Lindsey plant and now operate out of our Marshfield location, with our retail store in Tomahawk.”

District 7 Congressman Tom Tiffany was on hand for the presentation and recognized Hewitt’s as one of more than 500 small meat processors in Wisconsin, which he said are pivotal right now in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting down many larger operations.

The company was founded in 1939 by Marvin and Crystal Hewitt, and John and Amanda Franseen are fourth-generation owners who now employee 17 full-time and part-time workers. The business was one of three nominees for this year’s award, and the 33rd to receive the honor since its inception in 1988.