The Bama Companies, Inc.

The Bama Companies, Inc. is a privately held corporation

that began in the Texas kitchen of Cornillia Alabama

(“Bama”) Marshall in 1927. In 1937, her son, Paul, and wife,

Lilah Marshall, founded Bama Pie in Tulsa, Okla., and it has

grown into a leading developer and manufacturer of frozen,

ready-to-use food products served worldwide by quick

service and casual dining restaurant chains such as

McDonalds and Pizza Hut. From four production facilities in

Tulsa, Okla., and two in Beijing, China, Bama’s 1,100

employees generate over $200 million a year in revenues.

The company’s three main product categories—handheld

pies, biscuits, and pizza crust—account for 92 percent of

revenues.

While overall sales in the frozen baked goods industry

have remained flat since 1999, Bama’s sales have grown 72

percent. At the Bejing plant, production leaped from 600,000

pies in 1993 to 90 million in 2004. In an industry dominated

by companies several times its own size, Bama’s agility, its

unique approach to product innovation, and its System View

pricing strategy—it has not raised prices for its hand-held

pies and biscuits since 1996—give it tremendous leverage in

the marketplace.

Today, Bama is managed by CEO Paula MarshallChapman, daughter of Paul and Lilah Marshall. Continuity

has enabled the third-generation company to remain firmly

rooted in its original guiding principles: keep your eyes on

quality and remember that people make a company. Yet the

way that Bama applies these principles in today’s competitive

business environment is anything but traditional. The

company’s stated vision is to “Create and Deliver Loyalty,

Prosperity and Fun for All, While Becoming a Billion Dollar

Company.” Bama sees itself and its mission as “People

Helping People Be Successful.” 

Eyes on Quality

In its endless quest for improvement, Bama uses a battery

of advanced strategies and tools, including the Bama Quality

Management System, based on the quality improvement

philosophies of W. Edwards Deming and the company’s own

performance excellence model. The Bama Excellence System

provides a framework for all decision-making. A Principle

Centered Bama Culture, based on tenets developed by

Stephen Covey, provides a context for creating and

measuring excellence. Using Six Sigma methodologies since

2000, Bama has dramatically improved processes throughout

the company. Total savings from Six Sigma improvements

equates to over $17 million since 2001.

The Future Looks Bright

In 1999, Bama utilized a strategic planning process called

Prometheus to develop a company Future Picture—a highlevel view of the company as it wants to be in 2010. The

2004

Award Winner

National Institute of Standards and Technology ● Technology Administration ● Department of Commerce

Baldrige National Quality Program

Highlights

• While the overall frozen baked goods industry has

remained relatively flat since 1999, Bama’s sales have

increased 72 percent; total revenue has grown from 

$123 million in 1999 to $211 million in 2004.

• Bama shares company success with its employees

through a profit-sharing process. Since 2001, this

payment has averaged about $3,000 per year for each

employee.

• Bama has not raised prices for hand-held pies and

biscuits since 1996 through their “System View” 

pricing protocol.

• Bama has a full-time leader of community development

who is responsible for directing all of Bama’s charitable

and volunteer efforts.
future that Bama envisions includes: billion-dollar sales,

recognition of the company’s world class quality, being firstchoice supplier in all its target markets, and providing

employees and other stakeholders with unparalleled personal

and financial opportunities. To help achieve these goals, but

maintain its small company culture, the company focuses on

five strategic outcomes: 1) People – Create & Deliver

Loyalty, Prosperity and Fun, 2) Learning and Innovation, 

3) Continuous Improvement, 4) Be Customer’s First Choice,

5) Value Added Growth. Bama uses its Centers of Gravity

(short-term action plans) and a Balanced Scorecard to assess

progress toward meeting these outcomes. The plans and

scorecard support the company’s decision-making process at

all levels and are posted throughout its facilities allowing all

employees to see at a glance how their unit is performing

against goals. The senior management team reviews the

information at weekly and monthly meetings.

Building long-term relationships with suppliers and

customers also helps Bama stay at the top of its game. Most

of its key suppliers have been partners for 10 years or more,

two have worked with the Bama Companies for three

decades. Relationships with customers are just as enduring.

The McDonald’s system has been a Bama customer for 37

years and Pizza Hut for 11 years. Through these long-term

relationships, Bama understands its customers, their

customers’ markets and what their customers need to

succeed. The company has tailored its services to meet

customer requirements in critical areas such as assured

supply, precision manufacturing, and value pricing. Since

2001, Bama has achieved 98 percent on-time delivery of

products to customers, with 99 percent of orders completely

filled on the initial shipment. Customer satisfaction for the

company’s major national accounts has increased from 75

percent in 2001 to 100 percent in 2004, considerably higher

than the food manufacturing benchmark of 85 percent. 

Geared for Innovation

Bama's manufacturing capabilities and customer

knowledge have positioned the company not just as a

manufacturer and supplier, but also as a designer of

innovative food products. Developing new and innovative

products is a major reason for Bama’s growing market share

and sales growth rate and also is helping its customers

increase their own market share. In recognition of the

innovation Bama brings, Bama has received Pizza Hut’s

Innovator of the Year award in three consecutive years: 2001,

2002, and 2003. 

To manage its innovation initiatives, the company

developed a Business Opportunity Management Process

(BOMP) to coordinate the activities required to get a product

from the idea stage to market. As a result, from 2000 to 2004,

sales from new and innovative products have grown from less

than 0.5 percent of total sales to almost 25 percent; and sales

per employee grew from $175,000 to $205,000. This exceeds

the 2003 Industry Week benchmark by $40,000. 

People Make the Company 

and the Community

Bama is committed to the success of everyone associated

with its business – customers, employees, and the community.

The company’s People Assurance System (PAS) ensures that

each employee is well trained, fully informed, and

empowered, and centers on helping all employees develop

their potential and achieve personal success. Bama

encourages employees to seek a college education by

providing tuition reimbursement. Since 2001, more than 140

employees have taken advantage of this program,

representing an investment of more than $400,000 in tuition

reimbursement. 

Satisfaction and loyalty of their people is key, and the

company shares its success with employees when certain

financial measures are met. Since 2001, profit sharing

payments have averaged around $3,000 per year for each

employee. A promote-from-within philosophy offers every

qualified employee opportunities for advancement and the

opportunity to be considered for job openings. This

commitment to employees is paying off. Bama’s 14 percent

employee turnover rate is well below the average rate in the

Tulsa area at 20 percent. 

Bama also is committed to its community. A full-time

leader of Community Development directs all of Bama’s

charitable and volunteer efforts, and a Volunteer Coordinator

matches community needs with corporate resources.

Employees are given paid time off to volunteer to work on

corporate-sponsored projects. The number of hours Bama

employees donated to organizations such as Meals on

Wheels, Habitat for Humanity, Domestic Violence

Intervention Services, Emergency Infant Services, and others

increased from 500 in 2000 to nearly 7,000 in 2004. Bama is

the third largest contributor to the Tulsa Area United Way

(Manufacturing Division) contributing $150,000 in 2004

alone. In addition, the company each year contributes an

average of 6 percent of its pre-tax income (over $2.6 million

since 2000) to local organizations that provide essential

social, educational, cultural, and health services. 

For more information, contact:

The Bama Companies, Inc.

c/o Baldrige Information Center

2727 East 11th Street

Tulsa, OK 74104

Telephone: (918) 732-2121

Fax: (918) 732-2821

E-mail: baldrige@bama.com

Web site: www.bama.com