The Frozen Farmer Update | Shark Tank Season 11
Farms actually have a lot of food waste, who knew? One farmer’s wife from Delaware decided to turn this damaged, misshapen fruit into ice cream, and her company is really taking off. Will the sharks think this Season 11 deal is too sweet to be true? Read our
Shark Tank Frozen Farmer Update
- Entrepreneur: Katey Evans
- Business: Farm-to-table ice cream from wasted fruits
- Ask: $125,000 for 20% equity
- Result: $125,000 for 30% equity
- Shark: Lori Greiner
Former Ms. Delaware Katey Evans married a third-generation farmer in Bridgeville and saw a lot of food go to waste. Fruits that don’t meet a certain cosmetic standard often get trashed, and she wanted a way to avoid the loss. The Frozen Farmer is a line of ice cream and “nice cream” that is made from these otherwise fine fruits.
Katey has been running The Frozen Farmer since 2015 and is in 70 grocery stores that also stock their farms’ produce. That local charm has managed to net her $310,000 in sales in the year before filming.
The only real problem is expansion. She’d also like to hook up with a shark who could help her find a copacker.
The sharks try the ice cream and are mildly surprised that it tastes so good (despite coming from ‘strange fruits’). However, this business faces the issues that most refrigerated products do, and that gives the sharks pause.
Barbara Corcoran is the first to go out. She wants Katey to succeed, but she’s not the shark to help her do that. Mark Cuban echos her concerns, because ice cream is a competitive market and he might not want to break into that.
Daymond John sees issues with the business and doesn’t want to get into refrigerated goods due to the logistics of freezer space, freshness, shipping, and more. He’s out as well.
Kevin O’Leary is next because he doesn’t want to invest in a business with a structure like this one. He also doesn’t want to be in the ice cream space.
This leaves Lori. Greiner Healthful foods are something she loves but rarely invests in. Here, she makes an exception for The Fresh Farmer. She loved the ice cream, even though she’s not a big ice cream person.
She offers Katey $125,000 for 30% equity and a promise to go into chain stores and change the packaging up. Katey accepts the deal right away. Is this a delicious deal for Lori? Keep reading our
Frozen Farmer was featured in a Season 12 update, and we learned that Katey has moved toward direct-to-consumer sales through the Frozen Farmer website, but has not shifted away from grocery stores. Her ice cream is now in all 169 Giant Foods stores.
But that was just the beginning. Wal-Mart came to her door after her success with her online sales. After a quick rebrand, the brand is now Frobet instead, Katey got her ice cream into 4300 Wal-Mart Stores. She’s also in Stop & Shop and Kroger! During our research for our Frozen Farmer update, we found that she is now doing well over $1 million annually.
You can find the other company updates from Season 11 Episode 17 here:
Don’t forget to take a look at our Season 11 products page! We’ve got more company updates from
