Here’s What Happened To Blondie’s Cookies After Shark Tank
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Blondie’s Cookies was first created by Brenda Coffman in 1984 while she was a business student at Indiana State University, according to the cookie company. She started by selling her baked goods from her on-campus apartment to a customer base that primarily consisted of university students and teachers. Coffman’s cookie recipes took her around seven years to get right, and she started with 11 different types of cookies and one brownie. She now has at least 20 different cookie flavors, three kinds of brownies, and a new baked good that she calls “Chewies.”
Coffman opened her first retail store in a mall in Kokomo, Indiana in 1985, and she quickly continued growing her business until she had nine retail locations in Indiana by 2000. Taking a leap with the expansion of her business, Coffman set her sights on Florida and opened four stores there in 2010.
Wanting to expand her baked good business even further, she sought the help of investors on the popular show “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs can pitch their products and business ideas to self-made millionaires and billionaires, known as “the sharks,” in hopes of having one of them invest in their idea (via ABC). So what happened when the sharks — Kevin O’Leary, a venture capitalist; Barbara Corcoran, a big-time real estate professional; Daymond John, an expert in branding and fashion; Robert Herjavec, a technology innovator; and Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks and AXS TV — met Blondie’s Cookies?
Brenda Coffman appeared in front of the sharks on “Shark Tank” and asked one of them to invest $200,000 in Blondie’s Cookies in exchange for a 3% share in her business, per Shark Tank Blog. She had free samples of her baked goods for the investors, which they loved, and she spoke to them about how her business had made around $2.3 million the year before in sales.
However, because of Coffman’s decision to expand her business out of state, she had about $800,000 in debt, and her stores in Florida weren’t making a profit at the time. Due to those reasons, all five sharks decided not to invest in Blondie’s Cookies (via Shark Tank Tales). Since Coffman’s appearance on “Shark Tank,” all four of the Florida locations have been closed, and only seven locations remain open in Indiana, according to Blondie’s Cookies. In addition to the brick-and-mortar stores, Coffman’s baked goods are available to order online.
The alleged yearly revenue for Blondie’s Cookies is estimated to be between $9 and $10 million, and an additional facility has been opened to help with cookie production, per Shark Tank Blog. Coffman’s goals for her business include opening more locations in Indiana, as well as taking another shot at branching out into other states (via Blondie’s Cookies).
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