Who Owns Bar-S?

Bar-S Foods was formed in 1981 through a management buyout of the Cudahy Company, a meatpacking business dating to 1890. Tim Day, a former General Host executive who had managed Cudahy's downsizing, led the buyout group that paid General Host approximately $28 million in cash, notes, and stock for the assets. The company took its name from one of Cudahy's major brands and opened for business on August 28, 1981, with 45 employees producing about 10 million pounds of meat products a year.

The company concentrated production in Clinton, Oklahoma, after starting with plants in Seattle, Denver, and a half-share of the Clinton facility. Through the 1980s and 1990s, Bar-S expanded the Clinton plant repeatedly, added a hot dog plant in Altus, Oklahoma, and closed the aging Denver ham operation in 1996, consolidating in Oklahoma for its central logistics.

By the end of the 1980s, Bar-S was producing roughly 70 million pounds a year and ranking among the larger US meat processors by volume. Its niche was the value segment: low-priced franks, lunchmeats, and bacon sold through supermarkets and value retail channels, with particular strength in the South, Southwest, and Hispanic markets.

Day led the company as CEO for 31 years. In September 2010, Sigma Alimentos, the food subsidiary of Mexican conglomerate ALFA, completed its acquisition of Bar-S, reportedly the largest Arizona transaction that year. The deal gave Sigma mainstream US distribution and gave Bar-S the backing of a multinational food group.

Under Sigma, Bar-S kept its value positioning and Oklahoma manufacturing while benefiting from shared R&D, procurement scale, and Sigma's broader US platform. Tim Day stayed on as chairman through 2017. Today the brand continues to serve the value segment, with plants in Oklahoma and Wisconsin and distribution covering retail, foodservice, and club channels nationwide.