It’s All in the Family at Honey Baked Ham in Cartersville

A longtime location of The Honey Baked Ham Company in Georgia is under new ownership.

Husband-and-wife duo Todd and Laycie Ewing and their daughter, Elizabeth Ewing, are now at the helm of the store in Cartersville.

The family has long been acquainted with the brand. Laycie’s parents and other relatives owned several Hickory Ham Company locations in the 1980s and 1990s, including one in the Norcross area.

“That’s where we first became familiar with the brand, helping her mother at primarily her store during the holidays, doing a lot of glazing,” Todd told What Now Atlanta. “Laycie and I would glaze hams during the holiday season until 3 in the morning.”

The Honey Baked Ham Company acquired the Hickory Ham Company in 1998. The Ewings embarked on journeys in other careers.

“I went into sales and marketing and distribution of beverages and alcohol for 33 years,” Todd said. “Laycie practiced law. Now it’s come full circle.”

Eager to try something new, they began looking at franchises, with The Honey Baked Ham Company not particularly on their radar; with the company based locally (in Alpharetta), many of the locations in the area are corporate-owned.

“The opportunities to get into a franchise were kind of slim,” Todd said.

Then the opportunity to purchase the Cartersville location of The Honey Baked Ham Company came up, and it felt meant to be.

Renovations are expected to the store that has been there for 22 years – a new coat of paint, new equipment, new signage and a fresh look – but don’t expect service to be too interrupted.

“We might run into some limited menu items for lunch as new equipment rolls in,” Todd said. “We don’t see our store hours changing.”

The Honey Baked Ham Company was founded in Detroit in 1957. There are now more than 400 locations across the United States. The company has expressed plans to open dozens of new stores over the next several years, including in Georgia.

In addition to hams, turkeys and other pre-made items like sides and desserts available for purchase, the stores serve an array of lunch items, including the classic ham and turkey sandwiches.

The sliders are also a big draw, sold as a 3-pack during lunch, providing a convenient food option for outdoor summer activities and into the fall football season as tailgating picks up. They are available in several varieties, including the new Pulled Pork Cuban Sliders.

Todd said they’re right in the middle of a new era for the company, from updated brand colors to fresh menu items. They are enthusiastic about the vast catering capabilities of the store, especially with the booming area in which the store is located.

“Cartersville, Georgia, is really blowing up,” Todd said. “There are big distribution centers being built, new headquarters for companies. It is growing by leaps and bounds.”

The changes are exciting, but what the Ewings have always liked about the brand remains.

“They’ve got a nice set of core values,” he said of the company. “A lot of it is do what you love, love what you do. It’s serve others, it’s do the right thing. These are pretty prominent core values of the company. And the family-focused, philanthropic aspects are really important to us as well. It’s community, everything that goes along with it.”

Follow @honeybaked_ham_girl on Instagram to keep up with the store.