Lillie’s Q Sold To Sauce & Spice Strategic OWS Foods

Lillie’s Q Sauces & Rubs has been sold to manufacturing company OWS Foods, a producer of branded and private label sauces and spices, as it looks to accelerate growth within new channels including conventional grocery, foodservice and club stores.

Previously a portfolio company of investment bank Brown Gibbons Lang & Company (BGL), the transaction marks yet another investment firm-owned brand switching into the hands of a strategic operator.

The barbecue sauce, snacks and rubs brand was founded in 2010 by two-time World Barbecue Champion and chef Charlie McKenna, entered retail four years later and is now sold at a variety of specialty, conventional and mass retailers including Albertsons, Walmart, Kroger, Whole Foods and more.

Lillie’s Q produces a variety of barbecue and wing sauces with formulations tuned to various regions – such as its Eastern North Carolina BBQ Sauce – and aligned with dietary and flavor preferences including low sugar, keto and smoky iterations. The brand also sells a line of seasonings and rubs, in addition to a selection of Kettle Chips and various cuts of smoked meats via its direct-to-consumer site.

“With BGL’s guidance and advice, we were able to identify and negotiate with the right partner to accelerate the Lillie’s Q brand,” said McKenna in a press release. “When I launched Lillie’s over 14 years ago, the goal was to get the product into every household. We believe we have the best-tasting product in the market, and with the resources offered through a bigger platform, we are excited about the opportunities ahead.”

The deal is intended to help grow Lillie’s Q’s presence in channels where OWS is already well-established such as foodservice and club stores. The new parent organization will also push Lillie’s Q to test out new, complementary product categories.

“The BGL team ran an excellent, efficient process, which resulted in a fantastic partner for the company,” added Lillie’s Q co-founder and president Brian Golinvaux, in a press release.

OWS brings plenty of muscle with two production facilities in Concordia, Mo., and Ponca City, Okla.. along with a research and innovation lab in Overland Park, Kan. The 35-year-old company specializes in both wet and dry BBQ products, offers a variety of packaging types and formats and currently distributes products to over 20,000 outlets nationwide.

This deal is the second transaction by BGL this year where it handed off one of its food and beverage portfolio companies to a strategic operator. In June, BGL sold The Zidian Group, which operates Summer Garden Food Manufacturing, to soup, sauces, snacks and broths manufacturer Lassonde Industries Inc. Summer Garden produces sauce brands G Hughes Sugar Free and Little Italy in the Bronx as well as Italian food brand Gia Russa.