Here's What Happened To Ice Chips Candy After Shark Tank
As anyone with dietary restrictions knows, the food industry still has a long way to go when it comes to making our favorite foods with alternative ingredients. Thankfully, companies like Ice Chips Candy have taken on what they can by offering sugar-free candies that use alternative sweeteners.
Charlotte Clary and Bev Vines-Haines developed Ice Chips back in 2009, following a deep dive into botanical-based skin care. Friends since 1986, the pair had already embarked on many other small business ventures, including a newspaper, ghost-writing services, and selling baked goods. However, their families fell on hard times during the 2008 recession, leading Clary and Vines-Haines to get creative yet again.
They brought their sugar-free, diabetic-friendly candy to "Shark Tank" in 2012, hoping the Sharks could help them scale up their production from handmade to machine-made. The duo asked for an investment of $250k in exchange for 15% equity, ultimately striking a deal. So, where is Ice Chips Candy today?
Ice Chips Candy made a deal with two Sharks
Charlotte Clary and Bev Vines-Haines introduced Ice Chips Candy as one of "the yummiest" candies on the market and explained that it uses xylitol as an alternative sweetener. The duo cited the fact that xylitol inhibits the growth of germs that cause cavities, making Ice Chips one of the few candies that dentists don't seem to mind.
If that didn't get the Sharks' attention, the flavors sure did. At the time of their pitch, Ice Chips had 17 flavors — classics like spearmint and peppermint, as well as more unique flavors like coffee cream and piña colada. The sharks enjoyed the taste of the candies, even going so far as to say they didn't "taste sugar-free."
Clary and Vines-Haines went on to explain that they had made more than $342k thus far that year, and $360k the year previous. Barbara Corcoran offered them a deal, though for only half the money and more than double the equity. Ultimately, Ice Chips chose to partner with Corcoran and Mark Cuban for an investment of $250k at 40% equity.
Business boomed for Ice Chips Candy
As is sometimes the case with "Shark Tank" investments, Ice Chips Candy's deal never came to fruition. According to Choose Washington, the Sharks and the entrepreneurs weren't able to agree on how to restructure the business, so the deal fell through.
Even without the Sharks' help, Charlotte Clary and Bev Vines-Haines managed to expand their company. The night their episode aired, they received more than $300k in orders as well as interest from various retail chains.
Thanks to increased sales, Ice Chips was able to upgrade to a much larger space in 2015. The company also switched over from hand-making the candies to using automation, though workers continue to hand-pack cases. Just as Clary and Vines-Haines had hoped, they were able to get production costs down, and in turn, wholesale costs. Their hard candies have clearly struck a chord with customers, so where is the company today?
Ice Chips Candy is still very much in business
To no one's surprise, Ice Chips Candy is still selling its sugar-free sweets as of 2023. Today, Ice Chips sells 22 different flavors, including strawberry daiquiri, root beer float, and menthol eucalyptus. Individual flavors can be purchased in several different sizes, from three-packs costing $18.85, to 24-packs costing $133.05. Ice Chips also sells variety six-packs for $35.95.
In addition to its original Ice Chips, the company now sells a whitening tooth powder for $11.95. The powder is made from xylitol, Himalayan salt, and various essential oils, and though it doesn't seem to be as publicly supported by dentists as Ice Chips candies, no one seems to be discrediting it, either.
Ice Chips are also now sold on Amazon, with an average rating of 4.5 stars, as well as in retail chains like Walmart. The available information states that the company makes about $5 million in sales each year, further proving that it didn't need the Sharks' help to find success.
What's next for Ice Chips?
Being that Charlotte Clary and Bev Vines-Haines started Ice Chips in an effort to treat their grandkids to teeth-friendly candies, we can only imagine that they will continue to come up with sugar-free products. They could also very well continue to partner with other brands to promote kids' movies, as they did with "Finding Dory" in 2016.
The company doesn't seem to have any immediate plans, but in the meantime, Ice Chips continues to educate its social media followers about the benefits of xylitol. For instance, xylitol may help with dental hygiene, in addition to preventing ear infections and dry mouth.
Regardless of the possible benefits to humans, however, it's important to note the downsides to sugar-free desserts — namely, that xylitol is highly toxic to pets. According to Cornell University, even small amounts of xylitol can cause seizures, disorientation, and liver damage, so be sure to keep products containing xylitol safely out of reach.