The owners of BBQGuys, one of Baton Rouge’s homegrown success stories and an early leader nationwide in online retail, have sold the company they founded in 1998 to an undisclosed buyer group.
Mike Hackley and Corey Tisdale, who began the company as a brick-and-mortar retailer that sold barbecue grills, declined to discuss the new owner. However, Jason Stutes, who joined BBQGuys in 2005 and is currently vice president of marketing and e-commerce, is staying on in his current position and confirms the sale.
Stutes says it’s premature to discuss the deal or the plans the new ownership group has for the company, which reported more than 260 employees and revenues of nearly $131 million in Business Report’s 2020 Top 100 private companies list, where it ranked No. 42.
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Blaze Outdoor Products is a manufacturing arm of the company that makes barbecue grills.
Hackley, in a Facebook post, and Tisdale, in a phone interview, also confirm the deal. Tisdale says the sale had been discussed periodically for some time and that the deal came together over the past few months.
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“I think we just found some good people who are going to do awesome stuff,” he says. “Once they start announcing their plans, everyone is going to see how great of an opportunity this is for everybody.”
The company will remain headquartered in Baton Rouge, Tisdale says.
Read on for the rest of the story from the Aug. 31 edition of Daily Report. To keep up with Baton Rouge business and politics, subscribe to the free Daily Report e-newsletter here.