Lillie’s Q started in Chicago in 2010 after Chef Charlie McKenna honed his skills in top restaurants. Named for his Grandmother Lillie, who taught him the art of southern cooking back home in Greenville, South Carolina, Lillie’s Q produces and distributes award-winning barbeque sauces and snack chips.
In 2015
Lillie’s Q started working with
Food Export to expand their sales internationally. They started with Webinars, the Online Catalog and the Food Export Helpline™ to educate themselves about the markets that were best suited for their sauces and chips.
In 2015 the Chicago based Supplier started utilizing Food Export’s Market Access Program (MAP) funded
Branded Program. The 50% cost reimbursement program helped them defer costs while gaining exposure in international markets. In 2017 with help of their allocated funding they were able expand exports to Germany for the first time. With a sale of $6,000 Lillie’s Q obtained a new international market to add to their export resume.
Food Export uses funding from the
Market Access Program (MAP) to help America’s small businesses increase their exports of food and agricultural products. As these exports increase, these small businesses are creating jobs and improving the strength and stability of our agricultural economy. Food Export-Midwest and Food Export-Northeast are non-profit organizations that work in collaboration with their member state departments of agriculture and the
USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service. They offer a wide range of programs and services that help boost America’s agricultural exports.