Elevator Talk Live: Bon Bee Honey

Speaker 1 [00:14] We're gonna bring to the stage Kendra Bennett, who is the CMO of Bon Bee Honey. Kendra, great to see you. It is

Speaker 2 [00:20] wonderful to be here. Hi.

Speaker 1 [00:22] On brand. I love it. Well done. Please tell us all about Bon Bon Honey. I'm sorry, Bon B honey. Excuse me.

Speaker 2 [00:29] Bon Bon would be good too though. Uh, so the company name is actually Honey Buny LLC. We're producers of Bon B Gourmet honey bars, and you might wonder what a gourmet honey bar is, and it is a bar exploding with honey. 42% of every honey of every bar is pure honey. Oh, and I see we need to scooch, uh-huh, there we go ha ha, there we go. So 42% of every bar is pure honey. That is the biggest differentiator, um, of our bar among the entire category. We make two varieties. We make a peanut pecan and a coconut almond bar. They're made with all natural simple ingredients that you can recognize and pronounce. They are gluten free, grain free, and soy free. Coconut almond is also dairy free and peanut free, so it really meets a lot of consumer dietary needs, which is wonderful, but most importantly, they taste amazing, absolutely incredible. It's an amazing salty sweet combination. And it's packed with energy now, not protein. We're not a protein bar. The energy is coming from the honey, so it's that instant energy. A lot of athletes really like it for a quick boost. It's a great midday energy bar, um, just an awesome all around snack, um, so we've been in business since 2010. We've been retailing since 2013 and actually I'm gonna, oh, I skipped this whole slide. So here you can see some of the attributes we were on Shark Tank. Mark Cuban really, really, really, really liked it, um, as well as all the other sharks, so it was nice to get their seal of approval. Um, we are a family business. Um, I work with my mom, my dad, and my brother. Um, we're veteran owned, woman owned, we make all of our bars in house so we're vertically integrated, which adds all kinds of fun challenges and keeps things interesting. We make our products in Colorado by hand. Each batch actually takes 3 days to make, so not an easy process, but we've got it down obviously. Um, and today we are in about 3000 doors. We, uh, just launched nationally with Kroger this summer in 1300 locations, but we are also in Whole Foods, Rocky Mountain region, almost all the natural grocers, and something I like to point out is that. We're very much omni-channel. We do not only focus on grocery, so you'll find Bonvi Gourmet Honey bars in airports or museums, zoos, um, schools, so we're, we're in a lot of locations. It does very well, um, and let's see, yeah, it's just, it's been, it's been a journey, it's been an adventure and true entrepreneurship and grit.

Speaker 1 [03:25] Well,

Speaker 2 [03:26] you,

Speaker 1 [03:26] you need grit to be an entrepreneur in the food and beverage industry. Uh, very well done. Thanks so much for sharing that. I'm curious to see your price point, especially at 42% of your bars are honey. What are you selling

Speaker 2 [03:36] at? Actually, very reasonably considering the quality of the ingredients and that much honey, we're anywhere from 299 to 329 on the shelf, so we're on the higher end of the spectrum, but it's not, it's not out of the ballpark of what would be expected in the bar set.

Speaker 1 [03:52] Lee, do you intuitively, um, align energy with honey? And, you know, when you're seeing and when you saw the slides and you saw the product, do you get the sense that if you eat the bar, you're going to feel energy?

Speaker 3 [04:08] I, we, we love our honey at Perfect Bar. It is our only sweetener to our product, so, um, we are pro honey around here I think the, uh, as I mentioned earlier, a lot of education we continue to put out and I and many other. brands that are like us, low glycemic, um, that may be a claim you might be able to use low glycemic if you looked into that, it depends. Um, but just the type of sugar, cause of course sugar, there's just a lot of heat, right? For sugar and so I think um Being on the forefront of that and leading on what type of sugar it is because when I see honey I'm pro honey. I love that. I've sweeten things in my home with honey we go through a lot of honey so we actually grew up only ever eating honey to sweeten anything ever. My parents were hippies and it was a gallon of honey floating around the back of the motorhome, um, is what was in our oatmeal or whatever it was, so and how we made Perfect Bars only sweetened by honey. So, um, I see that with. Energy for sure. I, I think there could be really interesting angle working in the uh endurance space in the running community. I know we found a lot of benefit in the early days really anchoring ourselves closely and going deep in the CrossFit community where they appreciate obviously the endurance um aspect and we we deliver the protein so also the running community I think is really pro honey. So figuring out. Um, you know, it where and how to lean in there, uh, could be a unique angle for sure.

Speaker 2 [05:36] Yeah, I completely agree. As a matter of fact, um, early on we learned that many of our customers are actually endurance athletes, runners, hikers, climbers, cyclists, um, and we weren't trying to, we really at the beginning we didn't know, we just got the product out there and. And it was amazing to see how many athletes were gravitating towards it. You know,

Speaker 3 [06:00] it's, it's a very vocal community. CrossFit absolutely is, um, also the running community, so it's just you could maybe lean in there with like influencers that are unique to even that that running community.

Speaker 1 [06:14] I'm curious as to your thoughts about using the word gourmet uh on the package because when I think about gourmet I it feels like a specialty item uh but I, I, that could just be me individually.

Speaker 3 [06:25] Um, I, I think as you continue to refine your message over time and really zero in on the consumers that are really putting this in their basket, you can ask them directly, would that matter? I think for me, would that matter to me? I probably would elevate, um, maybe finding the right phrasing for that endurance part of your energy. Right? That comes from honey or the clean or nature's or what what claims you wanna make around energy as opposed to gourmet but I know being in the manu coming up in the manufacturing business you wanna get credit for how gourmet this is you're like this is gourmet people, uh, but your consumers will tell you if that matters to them because every bit of that real estate matters of course.

Speaker 1 [07:08] Kendra, have you ever thought about using, um, a clear package because when I'm seeing the bar as it is right now I am like my mouth is watering it looks amazing, um, obviously it's covered up with the label that you have right now, but you know, any thoughts on going to a clear package?

Speaker 2 [07:22] I would love, love. To be able to do a clear package because we use so much honey, each bar is unique. It's like a snowflake, so when it warms up a little bit, the bar moves around. Um, and so that's been the primary reason we haven't done the window, um, because they're not going to look the same and actually maybe that's something that we would just need to embrace but for a long time we were worried about that. We are starting to turn a corner and actually we have some new packaging. Um, that is not here right now but uh it actually calls out how unique every bar looks, um, so perhaps as we start to embrace that, that, uh, characteristic of our bar we may, we may do something like that because I agree once people see it they understand it better that's one of our big challenges is what is a gourmet honey bar. Is it hard? Is it soft? Is it sweet? Is it salty, you know, so people can see it, it goes a long way and it does look really good.

Speaker 1 [08:28] Yeah, I mean, on that note, when you aren't necessarily able to do demos and we've talked so much about the importance of demos, um, you might have shelf talkers that are there to help a customer understand what this product is and why they should be buying it, um, but they have to be well spoken shelf talkers. Any thoughts on that, Lee?

Speaker 3 [08:46] I agree and I think certainly a picture of your product, right? And and if the window isn't an option, then potentially a little corner of your food, right on the front of your package, we see that with some products make space for that, some bars in particular, um, because I think it may explain more of what you're getting, right? I wouldn't maybe expect that much delicious texture from something that's a honey bar that kind of feels one dimensional where OK, peanut, pecan, of course there's more to that. So I think just figuring out whether it's by a visual picture or your description on the front. There's a lot to that product with Honey is the hero. But I think you're you're maybe not getting benefit of of how delicious that food looks. Maybe just by how you're explaining it on the front. If a picture can't be delivered. Certainly on a shelf talker though, to your point or anywhere else you show up, I see you have it on your box, um. Yeah, gotta highlight that.

Speaker 1 [09:44] You see how Lee was looking at the box like I'm going to house 3 or 4 of those after this episode and I'm gonna do the same thing because they look amazing and I am starving specifically for Bonbi honey. Kendra, thank you so much for being with us on Elevator Talk. It's been a blast, um, and please keep us informed about that new package design and let us know if, if we can help in any way.

Speaker 2 [10:03] Oh, I will. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thank you

Speaker 1 [10:06] so much.