The Southern Brand Behind McDonald's Pancakes

You may be surprised to learn that McDonald's outsources a lot of food production. McDonald's pancakes (or hotcakes, as they're known at the fast-food chain) have been a breakfast menu staple for decades, so it's funny to think that McDonald's isn't actually making the batter. The family-owned business behind those delicious little syrup-drenched circles is called Bama Companies, and its history reaches as far back as the 1920s.

Their story starts with Cornelia Alabama Marshall, known as "Grandma Bama," who sold sweet potato pies in Dallas during the early days of the company. Her son later expanded the business to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where Bama's headquarters remains today. The company started working with McDonald's back in the 1960s, when it became the chain's supplier of fried apple pies and over time, that partnership expanded beyond dessert. Today, Bama produces not only hotcakes for McDonald's, but its biscuits too. And the company has remained family-owned throughout its expansion, despite pressure to sell to McDonald's.

McDonald's relies on specialized suppliers for some of its menu items because of the scale of its operations. Rather than making every single component in-house, it's just far more convenient — as well as reliable from a consistency standpoint — to work with long-term manufacturing partners that focus on perfecting specific products. This is one of those surprising facts about McDonald's breakfast that often goes unnoticed because as customers we don't really think about the fact that other companies might be supplying menu items. 

Hotcakes are just one piece of the puzzle. Third party manufacturers help produce parts from other places on the breakfast menu, including McDonald's breakfast McGriddles, or across the wider menu, where everything from buns and french fries and McDonald's beef patties are made by independent suppliers. Bama Companies' dedication to product consistency helped it expand from a small pie business into a manufacturing powerhouse. Today, the family-owned operation stands as one of McDonald's longest-running supplier partners, cranking out hotcakes and biscuits every day.