
In an early TV commercial for Kowalski Sausage, a father paces back and forth before his family’s home while his son and daughter fidget. Emerging from inside, the mother swings a picnic basket.
“You want to eat something?” she asks. “I mean, you want to eat Kowalski hotdogs when we get there?” From there, a voice intones: “Just leave it to the wife to know. And so, a-picnicking we go.” The family rolls away in their 1952 Chevrolet Fleetline sedan. Viewers next see a simmering hotdog on a stick over the grill in a park as Mom reminds viewers, “There are 60 delicious products. Remember, the Kowalski label means quality on your eating table.”

In the years from the mid-century to the early 1980s, the phrase “Kowalski Kowality” was coined. It became as indelible as the hotdog-on-a-fork sign at Kowalski Sausage Cos.’ headquarters along Holbrook Avenue. “Kowality” is such a strong signature, it’s even used as the company’s web address: kowality.com.
“We got that before I got here,” says Michael Kowalski, president of Kowalski Sausage. “One word says a lot about who we are and who we want people to think that we are.”
The advertising method has progressed beyond the discursive TV spot of yesteryear. Social media is used to target younger consumers “so that we have potential going forward,” Kowalski says. Constant elements in the messaging are humor and a light thematic touch instead of social relevance. “We’re trying to stay vanilla when it comes to that,” he adds.
With sausage recipes utilizing garlic and smoky flavors, the marketing approach may be the company’s only use for vanilla. Tradition adds its own zest, too. The company started when Agnes and Zygmund Kowalski, immigrants from Poland, opened a grocery store, added a smokehouse, and in 1920 built the Holbrook Avenue sausage factory.
The Kowalskis’ son, Steve, led the company from the 1950s until the 1970s when his own son, Ronald, took over. At age 49, Ronald died suddenly in 1989. Claiming no more than three years of collective experience, his son, Michael, and daughters, Linda Kowalski-Jacob and Audrey Kowalski, assumed control. Audrey left the business in 1994, but Michael and Linda, who is secretary and treasurer, continue to this day.
The 100,000-square-foot factory, which employs 100 workers, also has a parking lot for its fleet of 11 trucks; warehouse space is nearby. Home Style Foods, a 2002 acquisition, lies 1.2 miles away on Edwin Street.

Here, in about 50,000 square feet, some 35 workers make potato salad, coleslaw, and dips. Together with Consumer Guild Foods of Toledo, where seven workers produce dressings, and with specialty subsidiaries Tasso Cuisine (twice-baked potatoes) and Dudek Foods (pierogis), Kowalski Sausage Cos. almost fills the deli case. The products are distributed to Kroger, Meijer, and Costco stores in Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, with online sales and deliveries available nationwide.
Besides acquiring the subsidiaries in the last 22 years, the biggest move under the current leadership was closing, in 2012, the last 11 Kowalski deli markets around metro Detroit, along with the wholesale shop on Holbrook Avenue.
Considering the company’s start as a mom-and-pop store, Kowalski says it was a difficult decision. “We were a victim of our own success. Of course, you could go to our stores and get everything we make.”
Yet the large retailers carried the most popular items, and accounted for a lot of volume. In reply to a customer who lamented the effect of the delis’ closure on her Christmas and Easter specialty shopping, he said, “Well, if you’re going to Kroger to buy my products and you’re not going to my place, how do I stay open?”
While strategies change, basic demand remains strong through good times and bad. During the pandemic, steady access to sausage ingredients — along with a proprietary distribution network — paid off. The only casualty was the plan for a big centennial celebration in 2020.
Through economic upheavals, the Kowalskis have come to view the business as being recession-proof. During a downturn, patronage at restaurants falls off and people spend more on home meals; upswings leave regular customers with more in their pockets.
“We’re kind of in that nice zone where, no matter where the economy’s going, we have an ebb and flow of different customers, for whatever reason,” Kowalski says.
Adaptation lies ahead, though, as the retail landscape changes on multiple fronts. One example: the Home Style Foods’ salads transitioned in 2023 to prepacked, sealed portions.
“Our customers, the grocers, have the same struggles we have with people, and they’re looking at profitability and staffing,” he says. “I think you’ll start seeing more convenience-type packaging. A lot of the bigger customers have these ‘grab-and-go’ sections that they pre-slice in the deli. You’re going to continue to see stuff like that.”
As for the question of a fifth generation of Kowalski family leadership, nothing has been determined so far. Michael has three sons, two who are working and one in college. Linda has two daughters in college.
“The next generation is there; it’s just a matter of who’s going to show interest and who’s going to make us approach them and say, ‘OK, you’ve acquired enough skills. We want you to join the business.’ ”