In 1921, J.G. Hogeslag founded Hogeslag Slachterij a butchery for cows and calves in Den Nul (in the province of Overijssel). A few decades later, a new butchery on the Holstweg in Den Nul was opened. The family managed its own livestock purchases and every week, there was a “Hogeslag” to be found at nearly every major livestock market in the Netherlands.

In 1991, the fourth Hogeslag family generation took over the company when Erik and André Hogeslag succeeded their father. During those years, the nature of the organisation changed: the managers decided to cease their butchery activities and focus entirely on the processing of carcasses. After more than seventy years, the final truck unloaded its cattle and the last cow was slaughtered in Den Nul on 16 September 1993. Hogeslag-Olst BV, as the company was now known, began purchasing carcasses from carefully selected suppliers and the butchery was transformed into a cutting plant.

Hogeslag-Olst became a specialist and a well-respected name on the market. The company continued to expand and now employed circa sixty-five employees. As a result, the building on the Holstweg was rapidly becoming too small. In 2001, the organisation took over the former hog butchery of Dumeco in Olst (Overijssel) and transformed it completely into a modern processing facility for cattle carcasses. In 2002, the company left Den Nul after more than eighty years and relocated to the nearby town of Olst, on the banks of the IJssel river between Deventer and Zwolle.