The Brand Behind Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce Makes This Popular Salad Dressing

You can hardly walk through your grocery store's condiment aisle without seeing at least a handful of bottles of Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce. These condiments have been around since 1985, but there's a little-known fact about the barbecue brand behind the bottles: Back in 2003, Sweet Baby Ray's was acquired by Ken's Foods — yes, the company behind the popular salad dressing brand Ken's.

Sweet Baby Ray's got its start in Chicago three decades ago. David Raymond entered his family's secret sauce into the Mike Royko Rib-Off in Chicago in 1982, and people liked it so much that he decided to bottle it and sell it. In 1985, Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ Sauce was officially born. For nearly 20 years, the brand continued to grow, and now Sweet Baby's Ray's is one of the most legendary names in the world of BBQ sauce. 

When Ken's Foods caught wind of this sauce, the brand made Raymond a $30 million offer he couldn't refuse, and the dressing company acquired the condiment. Ken's Foods has made Sweet Baby Ray's one of the most notable sauces on store shelves. Today, Raymond is still in the barbecue business; he owns two catering companies and a barbecue restaurant in Wood Dale, Illinois, and he still has the rights to use the name Sweet Baby Ray's for his catering businesses and restaurants. 

Sweet Baby Ray's is one of the most widely-known barbecue sauce brands on the market, and if you ask most pitmasters, there's a good chance they'll admit it's their favorite store brand. Ken's Foods has continued to grow Sweet Baby Ray's by launching new flavors to turn the brand into a condiment powerhouse that appeals to all types of palates. "Consumers' diverse palates are a huge driver," Chef Chris Gatto of Ken's Foods' culinary team told Total Food Service in 2025, adding that people are more willing to try unique foods and flavors today than they were decades ago. "[That's why] we've created sauces like Sweet Baby Ray's Korean Barbecue and our bulgogi-style Kogi Barbecue Sauce."

Ken's Foods owns several barbecue sauce brands along with Sweet Baby Ray's. It developed Kogi, for example, a line of sauces inspired by Korean barbecue, in partnership with chef Roy Choi back in 2021. The company also owns Sticky Fingers, which has five varieties of barbecue-style sauces. Still, Sweet Baby Ray's remains one of Ken's Foods most popular offerings.