EatCandles
Loree Sandler and Bob Michelson hope a Shark bites on Let Them Eat Candles, their edible, chocolate candles business, in Shark Tank episode 1515. Loree got the inspiration for her edible candles at her son’s 12th birthday party. She saw the kids licking the frosting off the candles and thought “wouldn’t it be great if they could eat them?”
That led her to quit her job as an architect and enroll in Chicago’s French Pastry School and the Chocolate Academy. She learned how to create the chocolate candles, set the wicks and make packaging that pops. The candles caught the eye of Martha Stewart’s American Made contest and TheGrommet and things started to take off.
She grew slowly, but now she has her candles in hundreds of stores nationwide. They’re also available on Amazon. She’s sold over 1.5 million candles to date. At 16.95 for 3 candles, they’re more expensive than regular birthday candles, but regular candles don’t taste as good. Loree and Bob likely want a Shark’s help getting into more stores.
Company Information
Video
Posts about Let Them Eat Candles on Shark Tank Blog
Chocolate Candles by Let Them Eat Candles
Let Them Eat Candles Shark Tank Recap
Lori and Bob enter the Shark Tank seeking $250,000 for a 10% stake in their company. Lori congratulates the Sharks on another epic season. She and Bob are celebrating too: 35 years of wedded bliss. What drives their passions is celebrations with their company. Let Them eat candles are premium chocolate birthday candles to light, then eat. The flame lasts about a minute – long enough to sing “Happy Birthday” and strike a pose.
When they tell people they can light then eat the candles, their jaws drop. They ask the Sharks to see for themselves as they light 2 candles on a cake onstage. Bob invites the Sharks to light the candles in front of them, make a wish and on his count, blow them out together. He counts down, they blow the candles out and take a bite out of them.
Samples and Questions
Barbara asks if the wick is edible and Bob tells her they’re very short and you can just pluck them out. Lori wants to know how many flavors there are. The have just dark and milk chocolate and they have 7 different patterns. Robert asks how they got into this business. They have 3 boys and Lori was baking the youngest’s birthday cake with him; when they were done, they put candles on it and they dripped all over the cake. Lori was disappointed. Here is the last product on the planet that hasn’t been tweaked or optimized and she thought “how hard could it be to make edible candles?”
So she went to the Chicago’s French Pastry School and the Chocolate Academy and learned how to make chocolate and everything she needed to know about making her product. Mark congratulates her on not taking shortcuts. There’s only one other edible candle out there they know of. It’s chocolate, but you have to insert a wax candle into it.
The Numbers
The sell for $2.99-$3.99 apiece and they cost 85 cents to make; they wholesale them for $1.69 and direct to consumer for $3.99. Lifetime sales are $2.3 million. In 2022 they did $675,000 and they’re projecting $1 million in sales for 2023. They’ll clear $100,000 on the $1 million. They want to grow their business in big grocery chains where you can sell once and get 1200 stores. Their first focus was on Publix before the pandemic started. They’re in all Publix stores now and getting re-orders. Currently they’re negotiating with other stores including Kroger and Albertsons.
The biggest opportunity for growth is direct to consumer and it’s a challenge. Mark says it’s because it’s hard to ship chocolate. They ship in a box with insulation and gel packs which is expensive. Kevin says he wouldn’t even try that, he agrees with what they’re doing. All they need is 4 other grocers and they have world dominance in edible candles.
Is Anybody In?
Kevin sees nothing wrong with what they’re doing – all it will take is 2 or 3 years. Because he’s “walked that road” before, he’s out. Bob says they’re focussed on making it a $10 million business. He thinks if they duplicate the success they have in Publix with other grocers, they can get there. Robert loves the idea, but he has a conflict with another business; he’s out. Mark says even if they get to $10 million and get full distribution, he doesn’t know if they can do it without direct to consumer; he’s out. Barbara doesn’t think direct to consumer is a bad idea, she offers $250,000 for 25%. Lori likes to take a concept and expand on it; sheoffers $125,000 as a loan and $125,000 in cash for 20%. Lori and Bob counter with 15% for both Barbara and Lori and Lori says she’ll do her deal for 18%. They agree.
Let Them Eat Candles Shark Tank Update
The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. As of the first re-run of this episode in June, 2024 – just 3 months after the original air date – there is no hard evidence the deal with Lori closed. The company references Shark Tank in a press release where they say “investors Barbara Corcoran and Lori Greiner each made an offer.” There’s no mention of a deal. Let Them Eat Candles expanded the line to include candles shaped like bunches of balloons, the numbers 0 – 9, and messages like, “Happy Birthday,” “It’s A Party,” “Make A Wish” and “Over the Hill.” In addition to Publix, you can find the candles at Mariano’s, Raley’s, Lunds and Byerlys and Nothing Bundt Cakes.
The Shark Tank Blog will follow-up on Let Them Eat Candles & Loree Sandler and Bob Michelson as more details become available.
