Sister Schubert's
Founded by Pike County native Patricia Barnes, Sister Schubert’s bread company specializes in dinner rolls and other frozen bread products. Established in 1991, the company has expanded from a small local operation to become a nationally recognized brand with distribution in all 50 states. Based in Luverne, Crenshaw County, Sister Schubert’s produced more than 9 million rolls each day as of 2018.
Barnes grew up with a deep love for cooking and baking, which she viewed as expressions of familial love. She particularly loved cooking with her grandmother, Leona Henderson Wood, whom she called “Gommey.” The idea for the business emerged in 1989, when Barnes, a divorced middle-aged mother, made 20 batches of her grandmother’s Parker House rolls for a frozen food fair at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Troy, Pike County. The rolls gained a reputation, and, when she sold them at the same event the following year, she received 200 pre-orders, with even more orders the following year. In 1991, she started the business that would become Sister Schubert’s in her home kitchen, where she and her two daughters baked 200 batches of rolls each week for local shops and markets. The company took its name from Patricia’s longtime nickname “Sister,” which stemmed from her sister’s inability pronounce the name “Patricia” during their childhood. “Schubert” was her former married name.
The business grew quickly, and in 1992, Barnes moved operations to her father’s former furniture warehouse in Troy. Demand rose quickly as grocery chains across the state began to carry the product, and the company soon expanded to employ 200 people. In 1993, she joined forces with George Barnes, a frozen food broker, who helped the rolls find national distribution. (The two would marry in 1996.) In 1993, Southern Living published a story on Sister Schubert’s, bringing national attention and further increasing demand. The following year, the company opened a 25,000-square-foot facility in Luverne to keep pace with demand. This location continues to be the company’s flagship factory.
In 2000, Barnes sold the company to Lancaster Colony Corporation subsidiary The Marzetti Company, which owns its own line of dressings and dips and has purchased several other brands; it also maintains retail licensing agreements to produce sauces and dressings from several restaurant chains. Barnes remains involved in product development and serves as an ambassador for the Sister Schubert’s brand within that corporation.
In addition to her continued role in the business, Barnes has been actively involved in philanthropic and community endeavors. She and her husband founded the Barnes Family Foundation with proceeds from the sale of the company, and they have funded various causes focused on fighting hunger and helping children. Notably, after visiting a Ukrainian orphanage, she founded a foster-care center for Ukrainian children. She has served on several boards throughout the state, including the Dean’s Board for Auburn University’s College of Human Sciences, the Board of Trustees at Troy University, and the board of the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame. She received the Kappa Delta Woman of Achievement Award in 2016 and was inducted into the Alabama Business Hall of Fame in 2018. She has also published several cookbooks, including Sister Schubert’s Secret Bread Recipes, in which she shares the recipes for her signature products.
In addition to several varieties of signature dinner rolls, Sister Schubert’s produces a handful of frozen breakfast items, including Cinnamon Rolls, Sausage Pinwheels, and Lemon Blueberry Rolls and snack items such as Strawberry Shortcake Bits, Jalapeno & Cheddar Cornbread Bits, and Country Gravy Biscuit Bits. In 2021, the company discontinued its Sausage Wrap Rolls, its version of pigs-in-a-blanket, provoking an outcry among many fans. In addition to its headquarters in Luverne, Sister Schubert’s maintains a second factory in Horse Cave, Kentucky. Sister Schubert’s continues to be one of Alabama’s best-selling food products.
