local flavor
Story By Shaila Creekmore, Photos By Dero Sanford

What started as a hobby for William and Cecilia Wood, owners of Woody’s Bar-B-Q and Sauce Co., has grown into a championship enterprise with their signature barbecue sauce now sold in 27 states.

The Woods began selling barbecue at the corner of U.S Highway 49 and state Highway 14 in Waldenburg to passersby in 1988.

“We did it just mainly to make a little bit of fishing money,” said William, who previously fished professionally in the Red Man circuit along with his wife, Cecilia. “I had seen deer hunters going south and I figured they would stop to buy a sandwich.”

“Never in our wildest dreams would we have ever thought it would turn out like this,” said Cecilia. “We haven’t fished in probably ten or twelve years now.”

The little barbecue stand at the busy Waldenburg intersection began to grow by word of mouth and customers began driving in from across the area. Truckers passing through the area passed the word along to other drivers, resulting in a sizeable increase in sales.

“The CB radio was the only advertising we had ever had until we took out the first advertising in Occasions,” said Cecilia. “Now we have a lot more Jonesboro and Paragould people that come down because they’ve seen the ad in Occasions. But before that we had never advertised.”

Initially, the Woods used a standard store-bought sauce on their meat and sandwiches, but William wanted something unique. He began experimenting and came up with a mild sauce. He then added a bit of a kick to the original recipe to create Woody’s hot sauce. Woody’s signature sauce has a thin consistency that soaks into the meat and bun rather than sitting on top of the meat like thicker sauces.

Eventually, the sauce became as requested as the barbecue and the Woods began considering how to bottle the product.

“We couldn’t make enough to keep for ourselves, much less to sell,” said Cecilia. For more than a year, the couple talked to various co-packers but met with a problem. Manufacturers wanted to change their recipe to match ingredients they already had.

“We finally found a small manufacturer who would let us make it exactly how we wanted. We had to take all of our own ingredients and bottles and we would cook sauce all day long,” said William.

A year later, the Woods were given the opportunity to take their sauces to market in 1997 through efforts of the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. The AEDC development office invites four Arkansas businesses to showcase their products at the Dallas market each year. The following three years, Woody’s Bar-B-Q returned to Dallas to market their products in their own booth.

In 1999, William added a dry rub to product line and entered it in the Dallas Market’s best new product contest, where it placed first in the competition. At the same time, William sent sauces to the National Barbecue Association to be entered in its annual competition.

“We were just excited about winning the award at market and the next week here came the FedEx truck with the banners for first place in the best vinegar based categories for hot and mild. That kind of got us kicked off. We’ve won a wall full of awards over the years,” said William.

In 2001, Woody’s again added to their line of sauces with a Marinade and Baste, and the following year the Woods moved their production back to Waldenburg in their own facility when production requests outgrew the small Blytheville manufacturer. William has also added three more flavors to his line by adding hickory flavoring to the three sauces especially for those cooking on gas grills.

“I’ve wanted to come out with a steak seasoning, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t even had time to get in the lab and play with it,” said Cecilia.
In the process of developing the business, the Woods became aware that they needed a logo to promote their product.

“I had been thinking about what we might do when a customer remarked one day that we put so much meat on our sandwiches it was like putting the whole hog on the bun. I thought ‘That’s it.’ We had a girl here in town who was an artist and one day when she was here I asked her about drawing a picture of a pig being squashed between a bun. She reached over and grabbed a napkin and sketched it out and handed it back to me and said ‘how ‘bout this?’ We took that napkin and began using that design on all of our bottles, business cards, everything,” said William. The couple worked with a trademark lawyer for 14 months to get the logo as a registered trademark.

Currently, Wood’s Bar-B-Q sauce is shipped to 27 states and numerous stores across Arkansas. In nearby cities, William serves also as the distributor, checking and stocking the product on shelves each week. Once or twice a month, friends and family of the Woods join the business to cook between 150 and 350 gallons of barbecue sauce in their production factory. The Woods will also co-pack for businesses on occasion.

And still, Wednesday through Friday, like they’ve done for 20 years, the Woods can be found in their camper from 10:30 in the morning until 7 in the evening selling barbecue on the corner of the Highway 49 and 14 intersection. Woody’s sells ribs, chicken, Boston butt plates, whole butts and their most requested item, barbecue sandwiches.

“We sell 500 to 600 pounds of meat a week. For three days sitting in the middle of a rice field, that’s not bad,” said William.

Woody’s Bar-B-Q sauce can be found at Kroger, Bill’s Fresh Market, Wallace and Owens, Hays and Sam’s Club in Jonesboro and Hays in Paragould. For more information, call 870-579-2251.