Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce was developed in the early 1980s by
Chicago brothers Dave and Larry Raymond. They named the sauce after a nickname Dave had earned as a basketball player. In 1982, the brothers entered their sauce in a Chicago barbecue competition for the first time. In 1985, their fourth year of competition, Sweet Baby Ray's won second place out of a field of 700 competitors. The following year, the brothers incorporated as a business and began selling the sauce to consumers. The Raymonds sold the business in 2005 to
Ken's Foods for $30 million. At the time, the brand was earning $30million in revenue and had 21% total
US market share. By 2008, the sauce had become the second best-selling barbecue sauce in the United States. Despite selling the sauce business, Dave Raymond retained the rights to the name "Sweet Baby Ray's", and currently operates two restaurants under the name located in Chicago. Currently, there are 26 varieties of Sweet Baby Ray's sauces. They range from sweet to spicy, and even branch into other varieties, such as
honey mustard and
buffalo sauce. In 2020, the brand released a
no sugar added line of sauces, which was expanded in 2021. In March 2022,
Mashed released the results of a survey of 695 people. Over 48% of them ranked Sweet Baby Ray's as their favorite barbecue sauce. The sauce that was ranked second in the survey was selected by just over 15% of the respondents. ==References==