{"id":299006,"date":"2025-10-13T04:26:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/299006\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T04:26:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T04:26:14","slug":"bill-miller-bar-b-q-expands-with-new-texas-headquarters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/299006\/","title":{"rendered":"Bill Miller Bar-B-Q expands with new Texas headquarters"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 7-acre facility streamlines production, adds room for growth, and marks a milestone for one of San Antonio\u2019s most iconic brands.<\/p>\n

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 It\u2019s a San Antonio staple built on barbecue, family and faith in hard work.<\/p>\n

For more than 70 years, Bill Miller Bar-B-Q<\/a> has served homemade brisket, pies and sweet tea with hometown pride. Now the company is entering a new era \u2014 one that could double its reach across Texas.<\/p>\n

After more than five decades downtown, the company closed its flagship location on September 12<\/a> after over 50 years of service. The closure marks the relocation of Bill Miller\u2019s headquarters and commissary to a sprawling new campus on the far west side, near Highway 90 and Loop 151.<\/p>\n

The 335,000-square-foot facility \u2014 roughly seven acres under one roof \u2014 brings together every part of the business for the first time. What used to be spread out \u2014 employee parking, the dry-goods warehouse, production plant, bakery, meat pit, salad-dressing lines and corporate offices \u2014 is now all connected.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the single biggest project in the history of the company that we\u2019ve ever taken on,\u201d said Jim Guy Egbert, CEO of Bill Miller Bar-B-Q. \u201cNone of those buildings downtown were designed for what they functioned as when we used them. They were an old tire facility for Goodyear and an old leather plant. We adapted the space for our needs versus the needs being designed for our uses.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company worked with the Dennis Group, an engineering firm specializing in plant design, to make the new space efficient and employee-friendly. \u201cThe goal is not just to have this great, beautiful building,\u201d Egbert said, \u201cbut to have people inside of it producing more consistently than we ever have.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nDesigned for growth <\/p>\n

The new headquarters is home to more than 400 employees across three shifts, with the company employing 4,630 people overall. Each department now has room to grow \u2014 and room to breathe.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe came to me and said, \u2018Jim Guy, we\u2019re out of space. We\u2019ve gotta grow. Our employees are shoulder-to-shoulder, our trucks are touching each other,\u2019\u201d Egbert recalled of Balous Miller, former board chairman and CEO.<\/p>\n

Egbert said the facility allows the company to double its restaurant count \u2014 potentially opening two to four new stores per year. \u201cWe ought to have 30 or 40 stores in Austin, Waco, Temple, Killeen \u2014 the whole I-35 corridor,\u201d he said. \u201cWe go anywhere there\u2019s growth.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bill Miller Bar-B-Q currently operates 76 restaurants across Texas, along with six Laguna Madre Seafood Co. locations.<\/p>\n


\nBuilt by and for its people <\/p>\n

On Sunday, about 400 managers and their families toured the new site \u2014 their first look at how the food is made before it reaches stores.<\/p>\n

Plant Manager Dale Sims started as a bus boy at Store #4 off Jackson Keller and West Avenue nearly 50 years ago. He later became a manager, an area manager and now oversees production. \u201cThe old building served its purpose, but we were out of space,\u201d Sims said. \u201cThey took the zip codes of all my employees, found out where the majority of them lived \u2014 and that\u2019s how they chose this location. I didn\u2019t lose one employee moving over here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sims said employees were part of the design process from day one. \u201cThe set of drawings they came up with, I took to the employees in each room and let them make changes,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not all about what\u2019s best for the dollar. It\u2019s about what\u2019s best for the company and the employees \u2014 they\u2019re what make the company.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n


\nThe heart of the operation <\/p>\n

Every day starting around 3 a.m., trucks begin loading and rolling out by 4 or 5 a.m., delivering fresh food to restaurants across Texas.<\/p>\n

Inside, you can see workers pouring pies, packaging bread and rolling 85,000 to 95,000 tortillas a day. \u201cThey\u2019re tortilla balls,\u201d Egbert said. \u201cWe make the product here and send it out to the stores, where they\u2019re cooked fresh every day. I think we\u2019ve got the best tortillas in the business.\u201d<\/p>\n

The bakery now has 14 rotating ovens, while the pit room houses 12 brick pits, the same number once used downtown \u2014 but with space to double that. Each pit can smoke about 2,500 pounds of meat at a time, with briskets sitting out for 24 hours before cooking over Hill Country live oak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is where all of our salad dressings are made,\u201d Egbert added. \u201cAll of our hot sauces, our pico de gallo \u2014 it\u2019s all done here.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nTradition and loyalty <\/p>\n

Lupe San Miguel, commissary manager, has been with the company 41 years \u2014 starting as a driver and dishwasher before working his way up. \u201cMaking sure all the food gets to all the Bill Millers and Lagunas \u2014 that\u2019s my job,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t change anything moving from the old plant to the new one. Everything stays the same. Fresh is best.\u201d<\/p>\n

He called the transition \u201clike selling your house in 1950 and moving into a condominium.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got more space. It\u2019s better \u2014 a new facility,\u201d San Miguel said. \u201cWe can expand more, make more Bill Millers. We can hit maybe 125 or 150 stores.\u201d<\/p>\n

San Miguel is already looking ahead to the holidays, when his team will cook 18,000 turkeys for Thanksgiving and Christmas. \u201cAll the food Bill Miller sells \u2014 it\u2019s under my watch,\u201d he said proudly.<\/p>\n


\nPride and perspective <\/p>\n

First Shift Manager Jason Rasmussen has been with Bill Miller for 32 years, beginning as a linesman at Store #47 near Loop 1604 and Highway 281. \u201cI loved it. I stopped going to college because of it,\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

Rasmussen now helps coordinate production and distribution between the commissary and stores. \u201cI got to see what the stores struggled with or needed help with,\u201d he said. \u201cNow I know what we need to do to get product to them faster so they can take care of the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says the new location gives Bill Miller the chance to expand farther than ever before. \u201cWe\u2019ve steadily increased our store count over the years, but with this facility, we have the opportunity to grow and serve our food all over the place,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cKerrville, Bryan, College Station, Uvalde, San Angelo \u2014 we can serve them right out of San Antonio,\u201d said Egbert.<\/p>\n


\nCommunity connection <\/p>\n

The new headquarters isn\u2019t just about business growth. The company plans to make the facility as welcoming as possible \u2014 adding longhorns outside and eventually opening it up for school field trips.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince we\u2019ve been here, people want to be part of this,\u201d Egbert said. \u201cThis is not the ending. This is the beginning \u2014 to grow new stores, have more people and serve more communities.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nLooking back, moving forward <\/p>\n


\n \"\"<\/p>\n

Bill Miller started his business in the early 1970s downtown, building on a legacy that began in 1950 with a $500 loan and a scooter selling eggs door-to-door.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe idea was small when Bill and Ila Faye Miller had it 75 years ago: open a restaurant,\u201d Egbert said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have this vision. But as the company grew and more family members came on board, the vision grew with it \u2014 and the dream got bigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for what\u2019s next for the longtime downtown facility? Egbert said plans are still in the works.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the company\u2019s focus remains the same: making every meal from scratch, sending it out fresh daily, and staying true to its San Antonio roots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to show the world we\u2019re here,\u201d Rasmussen said. \u201cWe\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 7-acre facility streamlines production, adds room for growth, and marks a milestone for one of San Antonio\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":299007,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5133],"tags":[5229,7202,7203,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-299006","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-antonio","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-san-antonio","10":"tag-sanantonio","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115364966411343407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299006\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}