The Story
Kelly and Paul DeRocco came onto the Dragons’ Den from Sooke (Vancouver Island) BC for their product Fudge In A Round. They wanted 60K for 47% which all the dragons agreed was a very reasonable ask.
They had 60 very unique and some traditional flavours of fudge that they sell in small round containers at markets.
They wanted to boost their sales and get across Canada with their unique fudge.
The Response
Despite loving them and the fudge, unfortunately the dragons did not see how the product could be scaleable.
The company was just too small for any of the dragons to be interested in investing in.
Kelly and Paul had such a great attitude throughout the process. I lived pretty close to Sooke when I lived in Colwood on the island and wrote to them to support them and see if they wanted me to product review samples of their fudge.
The Products
They were happy to oblige, and check out this awesome sample package they sent me!
As you can see they sent their rum & coke, chocolate cheesecake, chocolate coconut and misty mint fudges.
The timing could not be better. It was Reg’s birthday! And he is a FIEND for fudge.
All of the samples of fudge were excellent. High quality, sweet (but I have had sweeter) of course with fantastic texture and flavour.
Reg’s favourite was definitely the chocolate cheesecake and it was mine as well. I do think $4 for that little container of fudge is way too expensive but I do love that it supports portion control. You eat a lot less with this little round container than you do when you pick up those huge slices of fudge that get eaten way too quickly.
The Update
What we did not get to see on the show was the success story behind the rejection! You can read the whole story here but essentially Jim came through for Kelly and Paul in a huge way. His brilliant idea was to connect them with a Canadian airline for either First Class Packs or on the menu on the planes. In the end they got to keep 100% of their company and get their coast-to-coast distribution. In the air! And they have also had their fudge go overseas to the Canadian military on deployment. Could they be any more awesome?
I had no idea that this was going to be such a huge success story when I wrote to Fudge In A Round. I just really liked them, thought their foodie idea was fantastic and wanted to product test for them. I could not be happier for them.
I personally give their product four and a half out of five wooden spoons. If they could bring their price point down a little I would nudge it to a perfect five for sure but that is the price you pay for high quality ingredients. All the fudges are very flavourful, gluten-free and not as sweet as other fudges out there. You can tell it has been made with lots of love and laughter. I am so very happy for Kelly and Paul’s huge success!
I really like the fact that the fudge is in such a small portion. It’s nice to have a little treat once in a while to satisfy a craving but those huge slabs that fudge usually comes in are just way too big to eat, even over several sittings!
Me too! Stuff like that is so sweet I don’t want to eat a lot of it anyway and this way you can put the lid back on and enjoy a bite later on, no problem.
Hi there my name is John and I was the person on deployment that received the product of fudge. However; it was my wife and mother that purchased the product to send to my dept as a treat during our deployment. My wife asked if we wouldn’t mind taking a picture with the product as she was very excited to help spread the word for “fudge in a round” My understanding is that they also paid $5 each for the 15 rounds that were sent to me to share with my deck dept.
I comment only as it seems unfair to my wife and mother that Fudge in a Round appears to be taking credit for stating that they sent the fudge to my ship. Whereas it was my family who knew we would be thrilled for a change of treats.
End note: my deck dept did enjoy the fudge.
Regards.
Hi John! First, thank you for your service. My husband is an army and navy veteran so I really appreciate your comment and contribution to this post. I might have misunderstood the nature of how the fudge got to the military and so I updated the post. Wow, $5?! That is pricy and how wonderfully generous of your wife! Good for her for spoiling all of you, in the most delicious way.
Sincerely,
Suzie the Foodie
Hi John
We gave your mom a deal on the fudge…she purchased it at our summer market…i was there to serve her….the $5 charge on fudge is for online sales on our website. And we started our website recently. Your mother stated that they would get a picture of all of you so that we could post it on our sites…and share it with pride.
We have never taken credit on you receiving the fudge, we have said it’s reached land and sea and were proud it got to you. We cannot control when articles are written…and glad Suzie can at least correct it…but others cannot if it’s printed.
Kelly
Ridiculous, I met these people at a local market. They 100% copied a store in Victoria who started making fudge in a glass jar called o sugar.
The labelling is illegal, they will never sell to an airline as the price is nuts and they would need a federally inspected kitchen. Airlines don’t spend more than 50 cents on snacks.
They love to lie about using a family recipe but they carry the product to the fairs in Calico Fudge boxes, for everyone in the confectionery business Calico is the largest supplier of powdered mixes for making fudge.
If you calculate the cost of their fudge in a mayonnaise container it is about $65 a pound !!!
Cheesy people, cheese labels and cheesy products.
Thumbs down all the way