Nov 13, 2025 By Paul Paterra 3 min read

Fourth Street Barbecue may be moving closer to being sold, saving the jobs of more than 200 workers, many of them immigrants.

Mark Welch, court-appointed receiver for the frozen food business, said Wednesday that he received an asset purchase agreement late Tuesday evening.

“I’m going through it and discussing it with the company,” Welch said. “If this can work out, we’re going to send it to the banks, probably (Thursday) and hopefully get it into court early next week and have an expedited motion. That would be a sales transaction that also includes funding from the buyer for a period of time until we get the sale. … If I can get this agreement done and through the court, it looks like we got a sale.”

Welch’s role as the court-appointed receiver is to manage and sell the business and its assets. He was appointed by a federal judge at the request of attorneys representing Huntingdon National Bank, which filed suit against Fourth Street Barbecue for millions of unpaid loans. To secure those loans, the owners of Fourth Street put the business up as collateral.

The business also was hit with a commercial lawsuit Oct. 27 in Washington County Court. The suit claims the company failed to pay $2.9 million for more than 1.2 million pounds of cheese products delivered between July and October.

Fourth Street Barbecue initially revealed plans to close at the end of October, which would put 252 employees out of work. However, Welch said he extended the Worker Adjustment and Retraining and Notification Act (WARN) notice through November.

Founded in 2014, the company, also known as Fourth Street Foods, manufactures frozen food products for branded and private label retainers throughout the United States. The company has facilities in Fallowfield Township and Speers, but uses Charleroi mailing addresses.

Joe Manning, Charleroi borough manager, said keeping Fourth Street Barbecue open would be extremely beneficial to Charleroi and surrounding communities.

“Given everything that’s happened over the past 18 months or close to two years, it would be very important,” Manning said. “Even though Fourth Street Barbecue is not located in Charleroi proper, it has a direct impact on us for sure. Many of their workers live in Charleroi.

“Given everything that has happened with Corelle and Quality Pasta, this was just one more unfortunate set of circumstances,” he said of two other recent Mon Valley business closures. “From the borough’s perspective, if the receivership did find a new buyer, we’d be thrilled. We would absolutely like to see that remain a vibrant business in the Mon Valley.”