 
Happy & Healthy Products, Inc. www.happyandhealthyproducts.com Sales: Approximately $4 Million HQ: Boca Raton, FL Employees: 8 Specialty: Frozen Fruit Bars Linda Kamm: “We offer happy products.” |
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All in the Name
Happy & Healthy Products balances good taste with good nutrition. The result, the company says, is a fast-growing franchise. By Kirsten Srinivasan
It’s hard to get consumers genuinely excited about eating something that’s good for them, but Happy & Healthy Products (H&H) seems to have struck just that chord with its Fruitfull® frozen fruit bars. The fast growing company has 85 franchisees in 39 states, and distributors in Singapore, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico and Canada.
President Linda Kamm, a former Miss Georgia, worked for a competitor before founding the company in 1991. Instead of marketing the product through ice cream companies, she wanted to promote bars through franchisees and produce a higher-quality product.
“Consumers are looking for grab-and-go healthy options, whether it’s breads, snacks or frozen fruit bars,” she says. “Our [frozen] product is different because there are huge chunks of fruit in the bars. Most bars you see on the market have little it any fruit.”
Offering chunks of fruit in the bars was relatively new, although fruit bars weren’t, she says. “Fruit bars have been around for thousands of years, even before electricity,” she explains. “Aztecs and people in Mexico and South America have made them for years. Having a more high quality product was revolutionary.
“Most companies today have very automated systems. It’s impossible for them to have the kind of chunks that our Fruitfull® bars do, because they couldn’t pump them through the machine.”
Coconut is the company’s biggest seller out of 21 flavors. “We also have flavors that no one else has, like guava and tamarind, and a new flavor that is coming out: green tea melon. It has the health benefits of green tea but the sweetness of honeydew melon. It’s really refreshing and delicious.”
Marketing through franchisees who work part time or full time is unique, she says.
The company gives “eye-level service of the account,” she adds. “People run their own businesses. It’s not just working for an ice cream company. Our franchisees offer the best customer service in the world. We provide custom freezers to high-volume accounts and our franchisees stock the product themselves weekly. There is no labor involved for the location.”
Entrepreneur Magazine named the company No. 1 in the miscellaneous food category in 2006. “We’ve been cited as one of the best and most affordable franchises,” Kamm notes. “The average franchise of all types is $145,000 and people can invest in our franchise for as low as $40,000. They don’t need experience in business. They can work out of their home, full or part time. We set up accounts for them and train them on how to run the business. It is a flexible, fun business that offers an excellent opportunity.”
Booming Markets
Happy & Healthy’s various products are sold at hospitals, colleges, health clubs, corporate cafeterias, grocery stores, health food stores, produce markets, ball parks, race tracks, amusement parks and other venues, as well as at retail events.
“Our biggest consumers are women in their 20 through 50s,” Kamm says. “The market segments that are most fanatical about fruit bars are Hispanics and Asians. Mexicans are totally in love with our Fruitfull® frozen fruit bars. Asians prize fruit. Some of the locations we are in might be smaller like a Hispanic market as opposed to a giant amusement park, but they have excellent sales, as well.
“It’s a fun business because they are happy products,” she says. “People are always glad to see you. It’s like ice cream but healthy. It’s just a fun, happy product.
“We also have Be Happy & Healthy® Snacks and Breads that franchisees also carry to help supplement their income from frozen products that sell better in warmer months.”
Strangely enough, though, she says, some of the biggest-selling franchisees are in colder climates.
The Fruitfull® frozen fruit bars are manufactured in California, in the company’s factory called Ex Corde Enterprises. “It means ‘from the heart’ in Latin,” she explains. They are then transported on commercial carrier trucks to commercial cold storage areas. Franchisees act as distributors and go to cold storage every week, pick up and deliver to accounts. Happy & Healthy is also adding a private-label business.
Kamm says an equal number of men and women are involved as franchisees. However, the franchise is a hit with women in particular because they can work from home and “don’t have to maintain a retail location with the hours, overhead, employees and other costs involved.”
Healthier items are growing in popularity, she notes. Schools are also pushing for more-healthy snacks, so the company hopes to expand in this arena, as well.
It recently introduced a new, smaller bar, Fruit Goodness®, that’s an ounce smaller, has fewer chunks in it and costs less. Kamm expects it to be a popular choice for schools and other markets.
Happy & Healthy Products has also introduced six flavors of chocolate-dipped Happy Indulgence® Decadent Dips™ bars that compete with ice cream, but have less fat. |
Happy & Healthy Products, Inc.