Milwaukee Pretzel Company Plans Major Expansion

Milwaukee Pretzel Company Bavarian pretzel. Photo courtesy of Milwaukee Pretzel Company.

The Bavarian-style pretzel has become ubiquitous at breweries, ballparks and beer gardens. Dipped in mustard or enjoyed on its own, the shareable snack is a crowd-pleaser and goes down easy with a pint of beer.

Its popularity is to be expected, given Milwaukee’s large German population. But what may come as a surprise is that, prior to 2013, the city had very few — if any — producers of the giant soft pretzels.

All that changed when Milwaukee Pretzel Company opened its doors just over a decade ago. The business has proven to be fast-growing, far exceeding the expectations of owners Matt and Katie Wessel, who were inspired to launch the business after living abroad in Germany.

And there’s more to look forward to. The couple is planning to expand the footprint of their production facility, 8050 N. Granville Woods Rd.

The project, expected to finish by the end of 2024, will grow the facility from 22,000 square feet to just under 50,000. The extra space will allow Milwaukee Pretzel Company to scale up production, increase freezer capacity and provide additional shipping, receiving, maintenance and warehouse areas.

It will also open up space for additional specialized machinery. The company’s Bavarian pretzels have always been rolled by hand, and that will continue. But automation is a more logical choice in some cases, both from an economic and quality standpoint.

“For a very specific group of customers, automation is just the only way to be consistent and to get the price point where it needs to be,” Matt said. “People are still a very big part of those lines, but the the machines are doing more of the craft of making the dough. Our amazing hand-rolling team can handle everything else.”

Milwaukee Pretzel Company got its start in a shared space at Wildflour Bakery in South Milwaukee and later moved to a kitchen space in the Historic Third Ward. The company next operated within a 6,500-square-foot facility at 3950 N. Holton St. for several years before relocating in 2021 to its current facility on the Northwest Side. That move was years in the making, and strategically included acreage for future expansions, Matt said. An affiliate of the Wessels purchased the property for $1.4 million in 2020.

“I think doing it within two years is sooner than we thought it would be, but we did assume it would be needed at some point, so we’re happy to have picked a spot where we had land in which we could add on instead of having to move again.”

The Wessels said they see the expansion as a path to make products at a higher volume while expanding into new markets.

“More than doubling our space is going to give us the ability to really go after any customer type in the country, which is something we can’t necessarily do today, simply because of a function of our space constraints,” Matt said.

Dozens of Milwaukee bars, restaurants, event venues and supermarkets carry the company’s products, which are also available across the state and throughout the Midwest. Notably, the pretzels are sold at American Family Field and Guaranteed Rate Field — home of the Chicago White Sox.

“When you get into some of those more public larger scale venues, you still have that feeling of ‘wow, I can’t believe we are here,'” Matt said, “I remember seeing our pretzel on a menu in Milwaukee for the first time and feeling like that was about as cool as it gets. But those moments sort of keep returning year after year, which is great. I don’t think you ever want to take success for granted.”

The couple’s sense of joy in relation to their business marks a continuation of its original purpose: a quest to preserve a piece of their time spent in Germany, and share that happiness with others back home.

“It was a wonderful year for us personally. “We fell in love with the Bavarian culture in particular, in part because so much of it reminded us of Milwaukee,” Matt said, noting the architecture of the region, as well as the prominence of festivals, beer, cheese and sausage.

One difference though, is that pretzels, a big part of Bavarian culture, didn’t have much of a presence in Milwaukee. So Katie set to work creating her own recipe, working to get the taste and texture just right. Compared to their American counterparts, Bavarian-style pretzels are darker and chewier, with a crispier outer crust.

“Katie is a very intelligent food person. It’s just a gift of hers,” Matt said. After about a year of trial and error — all the while seeking input from friends, family members and a handful of German expats — she landed on a final recipe.

“Today’s pretzel, I think, speaks for itself on how much that work paid off,” Matt said.

As the expansion progresses, the Wessels plan to grow their staff at the facility, which currently employs 105 people — three times the amount that staffed the building in 2021. Matt said he’s especially looking forward to that prospect.

“In the two years we’ve been in our building, we have tripled our workforce, Matt said. “You can’t get to our size and do it all yourself. You need some really spectacular human beings that believe in the brand and the people behind it. We have that, and that’s a very gratifying thing.”

That sense of excitement also applies to working alongside Katie, his spouse and business partner.

“Truly, the best benefit has been being able to do this with her and grow this with her. It’s just been a great experience. No matter how big or small we are, that will always be a true outcome of what we’re doing: the time we get to spend together and work together on this.”

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