BARBECUE SAUCE FIRM UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP

HORNERSVILLE -- Wicker's Barbecue Marinade & Baste, a vinegar-based cooking sauce operation at Hornersville, is under new ownership.

Wicker's Food Products, Inc. was recently purchased by six people, ranging from New York to Santa Barbara, Calif.

"We'll keep the operation at Hornersville," said Dr. Glenn A. Hemingway, a native of the Southeast Missouri area now living in Santa Barbara. "We believe this is an excellent product, with a potential that has never been fully developed. Expanding production and national distribution can make the product as successful as it should be."

Joe Hemingway, another Hornersville native, joins his brother in the operation. Joe and Margi Hemingway are partners in the New-York based public relations firm, Smith & Hemingway Associations, which specializes in the promotion and marketing of food products.

The list of six partners include Glenn Hemingway, Marla Hemingway, Joe Hemingway, Margi Hemingway, Jerry Blackwood, and Ralph McFarland.

McFarland, a Hornersville native, is a stockbroker in Little Rock, Ark., and MacFarlane is a partner in the CPA firm of MacFarlane, Spangler & Lynn, in Santa Barbara.

Immediate plans for Wicker's are to increase distribution in Springfield, Mo., Little Rock, Ark., Memphis, Tenn., Birmingham, Ala., and Nashville, Tenn., areas which presently represent Wicker's market area.

"We also plan to expand mail-order sales of Wickeris to other regions," said Glenn Hemingway.

The company was founded in 1949, when Peck Wicker came up with the formula for the sauce.