COVER STORY Fritz Usinger is the fourth generation to take the torch for the iconic sausage company BY J O E L C R E WS | j c r e w s @ s o s l a n d.c o m I 14 MEAT+ POULTRY | 11.18 | www.meatpoultry.com ago. Fred, who immigrated to the US from Germany after learning the art of sausage making, settled in the Milwaukee area in the 1870s when he was about 18. "He learned the craft like a chef trains today, by working under a number of people, collecting and developing recipes along the way," says Fritz Usinger, fourth-generation owner of his great-grandfather's company. Fred's first job in the city was working as a sausage maker for a meat company owned by another family. It was about 1880 when he bought out that family's business Andy Manis Photo n the meat-processing industry, there are only a few family-owned companies that successfully transition through multiple generations of ownership. Even fewer not only survive but thrive throughout the torch-passing evolution. Milwaukee-based Fred Usinger's Inc. is one of those rare exceptions. Founded by a German sausage maker more than 130 years ago, Usinger's has become a downtown fixture in Milwaukee, backing up to the Milwaukee River and facing Old World 3rd St. where the facility is a six-story legacy to the business Fred Usinger started about 138 yearshttp://www.meatpoultry.com