In 1981, the current owner of Michigan Brand, Inc., Mike Grillo, married Karen Grillo (Visnaw) the daughter of Art and Mary Lou Visnaw. Mike Grillo worked with Art Visnaw on developing Bay City Meats to become an even more successful business. In 1994, Mike and Karen Grillo bought Bay City Meats from Art Visnaw and re-branded the business to the current Michigan Brand, Inc. Michigan Brand, with the direction of Mike Grillo, introduced new products to their inventory including jerky, specialty hams and sausage. still continues to use the same ham recipes that were used when it was Bay City Meats. These new products, introduced with the new branding, took off and has been a great part of the Michigan Brand, Inc. business. More recently, Michigan Brand has continued to introduce new products with the addition of shelf stable products. These products do not have to be refrigerated; they can be left on the shelf at room temperature. Michigan Brand supplies many customers within Michigan and outside of Michigan. Michigan Brand is now employing a little over 170 employees at the both locations of Bay City and Frankenmuth. Michigan Brand has added a 2nd plant in Frankenmuth, MI as of May 2016. The Frankenmuth plant is being used as a 2nd facility for production and also will be conducting processing meat tours in the near future. Michigan Brand has always been a family business and still has many family members and friends who have continued to drive the success of the company.
