Overview

The businesses that are run by family make for some of the most emotionally enthralling stories on Shark Tank. Honey Bunchies is a notable example of that.

The Colorado-based company is popular for creating snack bars mainly made of honey and topped with nuts and sunflower kernels. The snack bars produced by them are available in a variety of flavours and most of them are gluten, dairy, and soy-free.

The snack bars brand, Honey Bunchies makes their snack bars by mixing honey and other beneficial nuts. The Kendra Bennett family, particularly her father, introduced this company in 2015.

In 2010, her father tried to recreate a recipe created 35 years ago by her mother. But unfortunately, he was not able to recreate the recipe.  But the Honey Bunchies recipe was made accidentally.

Kendra Bennett is the co-founder and CMO of this business. She came up on Shark Tank Season 14 Episode 20 and appealed to the sharks for an investment of $200k in exchange for a 10% equity in her business at $2 Million Valuation. In this article, we will discuss everything about Honey Bunchies including its net worth.

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Honey Bunchies Net Worth 2019

In 2019, Honey Bunchies had an approximate net worth of $75,000.

Honey Bunchies Net Worth 2020

In 2020, Honey Bunchies had an approximate net worth of $100,000.

Honey Bunchies Net Worth 2021

In 2021, Honey Bunchies had an approximate net worth of $600,000.

Honey Bunchies Net Worth 2022

In 2022, Honey Bunchies had an approximate net worth of $2 million.

Honey Bunchies Net Worth 2023

As of 2023, the estimated net worth of Honey Bunchies is $8 million.

The Shark Tank Pitch

After appearing on Shark Tank, Kendra Bennett appealed to the sharks for an investment of $200k in exchange for a 10% equity in her company. She shared with the sharks complete information about how her family business Honey Bunchies began.

She told the sharks that her father began this company in 2010. However, he did not have any experience in the food and beverage industry. That is why it took him 3 years to create the foundation.

In 2013, they introduced this product to retail and for the first time they were able to make a deal with Whole Foods. This product is now available for purchase at more than 1200 Whole Foods, Kroger, Natural Grocers, King Soopers and more nationwide.

The retail price of the bars is $2.99 and the manufacturing cost of the bars is $0.88. They have managed to sell more than $300K to date and they are expecting to do $519,000 by the end of the year. If they generate $519k in sales they would be able to generate $22k in profit.

They are expecting that in the next year, they will be able to generate $2.2 M to $4.2 M in sales. The reason behind the leap in these sales is that this product is going to be available for sale at 7Eleven, Nationwide Distributor and More.

Indeed, this business was not able to get any funding from the sharks in Shark Tank, but Kendra told the sharks at the time of leaving the Shark Tank stage that she thought the sharks could regret it by not making the deal.

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A Brief Description Of The Product

Honey Bunchies is a Longmont, Colorado-based company that is popular for making tasty snack bars. Currently, the name of this snack bar has been transformed from Honey Bunchies to Bon Bee.

To make these snack bars different natural ingredients and up to 42% pure honey are used. The shelf life of these snack bars is 7 months, but if you store them in the refrigerator, it will last for 8 to 12 months.

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Founder Stories

Kendra Bennett primarily operates the business. She was inspired by a recipe created by her parents.

Her father worked in Vietnam where he had followed a largely unhealthy diet and became hyperglycemic. Bennett’s mother invented a healthy alternative and more than 30 years later, her father tried to recreate that recipe.

Although he did not become successful in recreating that recipe, in the process, he accidentally developed the recipe that would go on to birth Honey Bunchies and the business was founded in 2010. The name was inspired by the nicknames that Bennett’s parents gave each other.

The idea would ultimately grow into a full-on family operation. Bennett’s brother helped her in managing production, while her mother, cousins, and uncles came on board to provide their services.

They went from door-to-door with a cooler to scout out potential buyers, finally, they were able to find their first retail outlet in 2013 before developing to more locations within Colorado. What finally kept Kendra and her family going was their burning confidence, with visions of the product becoming a big-time brand. With some promising possibilities under her belt, she made up her mind to appear on Shark Tank to find out how to make that vision become a reality.

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Shark Reactions

Kendra Bennett represented Honey Bunchies on Shark Tank and gave a lively and optimistic pitch. But unfortunately, the shares did not receive it well. Bennett appeared on Shark Tank intending to get an investment of $200,000 in return for a 10% stake in her business.

Unfortunately for Honey Bunchies, the Sharks did not match her positivity although most thought the bars themselves were tasty. According to the sharks she was overestimating the company’s potential and the product’s innovative qualities when Bennett said that the company had only made $22,000 in profit from $519,000 in sales in the past year and they were expecting a dramatic increase in the upcoming year —  between $2.2 million and $4.2 million in sales. Bennett said this because of a series of reasons that were by no means ensured to make it happen. The sharks made different comments after hearing the pitch. Here is a brief description of it.

Mark Cuban: Mark Cuban was not willing to commit. There was severe competition in the energy bar industry. That is why he was unable to see a way to make money quickly enough. That is why he did not make any deal.

Lori Greiner: Lori Grenier clarified that she did not like honey and could not invest in a product that she did not personally like. Hence she went out of the deal.

Barbara Corcoran: Barbara Corcoran praised Bennett’s positiveness and work ethic but was not happy with her numbers. That is why she was out of the deal.

Daymond John: Daymond John mentioned the common difficulties in a family business as his reason for holding back. Finally, he too went out of the deal.

Kevin O’Leary: Kevin O’Leary put the final nail in the coffin when he referred to Bennett’s valuation as completely insane and when Bennett pleaded for an alternate offer, he just replied no.

Bennett’s presentation ended on an emotional note, as she broke down in tears, describing how the business was “everything” to her and her family.

O’Leary gave her advice which was both encouraging and sobering. He told Bennett that the road of entrepreneurship is not a destination, it is a journey. It is full of heartbreak.

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Deal Or No Deal

Kendre Bennett did not get any deal for Honey Bunchies from Shark Tank.

Honey Bunchies Post Shark Tank Success

Indeed, Honey Bunchies was not able to get funding at Shark Tank, but the co-founder Kendra told Shark that they would regret one day for not making the deal.

On April 16, 2023, a video was shared on the official Instagram account @bonbeehoney in which Kendra was packaging and shipping around 1,000+ orders.

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Honey Bunchies: Challenges And Triumphs

While the experience on Shark Tank was disappointing, Honey Bunchies has soldiered on, increased by the spotlight that Shark Tank shone on the company. The company had rebranded slightly: their two bars both the original peanut and honey flavour and the peanut-free almond and coconut variety they launched in 2021 are now known as Bon Bee Bar rather than Honey Bunchies.

According to the website of the company, the decision was made in April that their Gourmet Honey Bars could use a name that will grow along with them, raising speculation that they will do some more with their honey base, a feature the company prides itself on.

With the honey quotient at 42% of every bar, honey is a significant player in the ingredient list and the name leaves the door open to more honey-based products, though there is no clue at this time that the company is developing other products.

It is also possible that as the business develops, there is concern about the potential for conflict with Honey Bunches of Oats, a Post cereal whose name is alarmingly identical. Since appearing on Shark Tank, Honey Bunchies or Bon Bee has become available in more than 1200 Kroger supermarkets in addition to the stores where the company had already founded a presence and is available in bulk on Amazon. That enormous growth into a major supermarket seems to be a huge step for the company.

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What Is The Current Status Of Honey Bunchies?

As of 2024, Honey Bunchies has been rebranded as Bon Bee Honey. This Honey Bar is available for sale at 7-Eleven, Kroger, King Soopers, Whole Foods, Natural Grocers and many more retail stores.

While the name of Honey Bunchies has been changed, the ownership has remained the same. Bon Bee makes all its bars in Longmont, Colorado, and claims itself proudly to be woman- and veteran-owned.

Kendra Bennett is co-owner alongside her brother, veteran Ed Payne (Junior), and his wife Jennifer, and the company provides “Hero Discounts” to veterans, healthcare workers, and teachers. Those discounts are useful since the bars themselves are on the costly end of the retail spectrum at $2.99 each.

The website and Instagram page of Bon Bee indicate slow but steady progress for the business and an active following among honey lovers. A large portion of their business is still found in smaller stores.

Most of Bon Bee’s Amazon and other reviewers make note of the bar’s appearance on “Shark Tank” as having increased their interest in the bars and putting them on the map.

That is why, it is clear that going on “Shark Tank” had some obvious benefits, despite their failure to secure financial backing on the show. For now, the Honey Bunchies team is engaged at work getting the buzz out on their bars. They have full faith that their positive energy, hard work, and good food will take them where the Sharks were not ready to go.

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Are Honey Bunchies still in business?

This business was begun in 2010 by Kendra’s father who was a fighter pilot in the United States Army. She had to work on many things to bring this business back on track.

In Amazon Global Rating, 90% of users have given this bar a 5-star rating.

The current headquarters of the company is in Longmont, Colorado, United States and it employs 5-10 people.

Yes, Honey Bunchies is still active in business as of January 2024.

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Honey Bunchies Shark Tank Update

Kendra gave a very promising presentation in Shark Tank and also talked about the plan to bring the sharks as investors. Despite all this, Kendra was unable to get funding for Shark Tank. Daymond John said that he cannot invest in this family business as it has so many problems.

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What Is Next for Bon Bee Honey Or Honey Bunchies?

Bon Bee Honey has come a long way in the past few years, developing from door-to-door sales in the Colorado area to retail partnerships with major supermarket and convenience store outlets like Whole Foods, Kroger, and 7-Eleven.

The family behind the business may have been disheartened by the reaction of the sharks during the recently aired Honey Bunchies Shark Tank episode on which now Chief Marketing Officer Kendra Bennett represented the business potential of the company but the Sharks have been wrong before.

Extensively raised earnings could soon be a reality for Bon Bee Honey if additional 7-Eleven and Kroger stores welcome its products, and the Shark Tank appearance has already increased the online sales of the company.

The company is taking bold steps to improve its profile on social media channels such as Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and is going on to publicize online sales with subscriptions and hero discounts which give preferential pricing to those like Ed Payne, who served in our nation’s military. Teachers and first responders are also eligible to get hero discounts. Based on customer reviews, 99% of which on the site are five stars, the honey bars have found a keen audience.

Bennett said through the Denver Business Journal that it was unfortunate that they did not get a deal on Shark Tank but she was a firm believer that everything happens the way it is supposed to. She has also added that they still own 100% of the company, and it was cool having the chance to present their business in front of the Sharks. It was an amazing experience.

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Conclusion

Honey Bunchies is doing very well even after not getting any deal from the sharks. It is a remarkable example for business owners of how to run a business skillfully with full dedication.

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