CHICAGO — OWS Foods, maker of Championship BBQ sauces and rubs established in 1988, has acquired Lillie’s Q Sauces & Rubs, LLC. Brown Gibbons Lang & Co.’s Food and Beverage investment banking team, an independent investment bank and financial advisory firm focused on the global middle market, was Lillie’s Q financial adviser in the acquisition. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

“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 Charlie McKenna, founder of Lillie’s Q. “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 acquisition will enable Lillie’s Q to expand its national presence in conventional grocery, foodservice and club channels and also may explore and enter new product categories, according to the company.

Lillie’s Q was founded in 2010 by two-time World Barbecue Champion Chef McKenna and produces Southern-style flavored sauces, rubs and seasonings.

Lillie’s Q, coined from the founders Grandma Lillie whom McKenna learned how to make Southern barbecue from, began when McKenna graduated from New York’s Culinary Institute of America in 2000.

McKenna took his culinary skills to the test and won first place at Memphis in May, a Beale Street Music Festival, World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest and Great American River Run competition event held in Memphis, Tenn., in 2007 and later won first place again in May 2016.

In 2008, the company opened its first Lillie’s Q restaurant in Destin, Fla. From there, the company opened another restaurant in Chicago in 2010 and also has locations in Wrigley Field and the United Center Indoor Arena in Chicago. 

Four years later the company, and its co-founder Brian Golinvaux, entered the consumer packaged goods (CPG) space and launched its Lillie’s Q BBQ Sauces and Rubs line into retailers. In 2015 the company added Lillie’s Q Kettle Chips to its line.

The company’s products were launched nationwide and internationally to Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Central America in 2017.

In 2020, the company expanded into foodservice and direct-to-consumer with fully cooked pork shoulder, according to the company.

The company’s sauce line includes such flavors as honey barbecue, hot smoky barbecue, smoky barbecue, Carolina barbecue, gold barbecue, ENC (Eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce), ivory barbecue, Buffalo wing sauce, white wing sauce, honey gold tender sauce, BBQ aioli tender sauce and a zero sugar and keto friendly line.

Its kettle chip line features such flavors as buttermilk sweet onion, Carolina dirt barbecue, hot pepper vinegar, Lillie’s original, pimento cheese and sea salt and black pepper.

OWS Foods makes barbecue sauces, rubs, blended seasonings, dressings and glazes among other products and also owns Head Country, according to the company.

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