Bird’s Bar-B-Q Concession is a real success story. “My husband has been in building houses for 40 years and I have always been in the real estate profession. On our first day, with no advertising or on-site advertising other than the trailer and the smoke pouring out of the smoker, in a town of 2,000 in the heart of Central Indiana, our first day’s sales were $850. Only being open for two hours at lunch and two hours at supper on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday produced sales of $350 per day. Our first festival was Farmer’s Pike in September. Attendance was 51,000 and our sales were more than $5,000 for three days. We had people calling us to place orders at our little local spot before we were ever finished with the festival. In my own mind what started out to be something to do on weekends, like a hobby or fun thing, turned into a full-time business. I can quit my full-time job because this is so much fun.” THIS BIZ IS SMOKIN’ If you are eager to investigate the options,  contact Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q by visiting their website>.  You can also call the Anderson,  Indiana headquarters at: 765-622-7961.

Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q, LCC was launched in June 2000 on a shoestring and has grown by leaps and bounds. The husband-and-wife team founders, Billy and Kathy Penny, were selling their family car for a means of survival after a large corporate layoff. They conceptualized and constructed their mobile Texas Style Barbecue Log Cabin Concession Trailer to pay the family’s bills until steady work could be found. The rest, as they say, is history.

Today, the company designs and manufactures a wide variety of the barbecue units and trailers and sells them to entrepreneurs who want to start their own barbecue concession enterprise. Prices range from $1,650 to about $30,000 depending on the size of the unit.

According to the founders: “Southern Yankee turned down a million dollar offer to sell the company due to the fact that the mission would have changed and the prospective buyers only saw dollar signs,” say the Pennys. “After receiving a U.S. Patent on their product in December 2002, the company is worth more today than it was back then.”

The success story of Steve’s Bar-B-Q Concession started in September 2001. He and his wife purchased a unit and took it on the road with them. They settled in Arizona, where they report on one weekend they made $8,000 selling turkey legs at a fair.

If you’re interested in learning more about the business, give the Pennys a call or visit their website. Meanwhile, the available units include:

The Three Foot:
These backyard barbecue pit smokers have a grilling surface of three 8” x 34” rotating shelves, with a cooking capacity of up to nine 10 to 12-pound briskets, up to 9 fresh hams or 9 shoulders, or up to 20 pounds of ribs, or up to 26 chicken halves.
The price of a 3-foot backyard BBQ rotisserie pit smoker from Southern Yankee Barbeque is $1,650 (plus 6% sales tax if picked up in Indiana). Custom models are available for any size, and custom trailers are also available. We also manufacture custom BBQ smokers to your specs—call or email us for details.

The Four Foot:
These four-foot rotisserie BBQ pit smokers have a grilling surface of four 10” x 46” rotating shelves with a cooking capacity of up to 16 Briskets weighing from 10-12 pounds each, up to 16 fresh hams, or 20 shoulders, or up to 100 pounds of ribs, or up to 40 chicken halves. The price of our four-foot rotisserie barbecue pit smoker, mounted on its own trailer, is $3,000. Custom models are available for any size, and custom trailers are also available. Southern Yankee Bar-B-Q also manufactures custom smokers to your specs. Mounted on legs and casters (instead of a trailer) the price of a four-foot rotisserie BBQ pit smoker is $2,700.

The Six Foot:
These six-foot rotisserie BBQ pit smokers have a grilling surface of six 10” x 70” rotating shelves with a cooking capacity of up to 30 briskets weighing from 10-12 pounds each, up to 20 fresh hams, or 25 shoulders, or up to 200 pounds of ribs, or up to 126 chicken halves. The price of our four-foot rotisserie barbeque pit smoker, mounted on its own trailer, is $5,000. Custom models are available for any size, and custom trailers are also available. The six-foot rotisserie BBQ pit smoker, mounted on a stand and casters (instead of trailer) is $4,700.

The Eight Foot Rotisserie BBQ Pit Smokers:
These eight-foot rotisserie BBQ pit smokers have a grilling surface of six 10” x 94” rotating shelves with a cooking capacity of up to 40 briskets weighing from 10-12 pounds each, up to 30 fresh hams, or 35 shoulders, or up to 230 pounds of ribs, or up to 200 chicken halves. The price of our eight-foot rotisserie barbecue pit smoker, mounted on its own trailer, is $6,250. Custom models are available for any size, and custom trailers are also available. The price of an eight-foot rotisserie barbeque pit smoker, mounted on legs and casters (instead of a trailer) is $5,950.

Sales tax of 6% is charged if the units are picked up in Indiana. No sales tax is charged if the trailer is delivered or shipped out of Indiana.

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