Building a frozen dessert empire, from sorbet to fudge pops

SARASOTA, FLA. — Store-bought sorbet, as Nicole Cardone recalled it, was basically “really sweet… icy fruit juice,” a forgotten frozen dessert among “all the other options for craft ice cream” cropping up in supermarket freezer cases more than a decade ago. 

The observation marked the beginning of SorBabes, a brand of sorbet featuring indulgent additions, founded by Ms. Cardone, a former Wall Street analyst, and Deborah Gorman, previously a chef and caterer. Back in 2012, the pair began peddling pints at New York farmers markets, including such creative concoctions as a cucumber white wine mint offering that “the Hamptons took … by storm,” Ms. Cardone said. The product line has since evolved into a collection of coated, fruit-based bars in flavors including strawberries and cream, mango coconut crunch and berry cocoa crisp.

Much in the same way the two founders aspired to reimagine sorbet, Ms. Cardone and Ms. Gorman are now launching a specialty twist on the classic fudgesicle. Fudgy Pop is a line of dairy-free bars formulated with Guittard cocoa and available in flavors including original, berry, mint and orange. 

Fudgy Pop is debuting under the newly established parent company Fruitful Brands alongside SorBabes. A four-year stint consulting for Blue Bunny ice cream maker Wells Enterprises inspired the founders to expand in a strategic way. 

“You’re sitting in front of that buyer, and you have two opportunities for them to say yes, and you have two shelves now that you have a unique proposition for, so you’re now capturing more of the market share with less than twice the effort,” Ms. Cardone said. “We are seeing such great synergies staying in the same category, so it’s been really fun.”

In an interview, Ms. Gorman and Ms. Cardone shared insights on building a self-funded stable of brands with no prior consumer products knowledge in one of the most challenging categories of the grocery store. 

Food Entrepreneur: What inspired you to launch SorBabes?

Nicole Cardone: I actually came up with the idea of making sorbet while I was in college. I was going to school for finance and working at JP Morgan, and I didn’t really enjoy the corporate world… but in my side time I loved to cook and would make sorbet from the farmers market. 

I would get a big bag of overripe peaches that they couldn’t sell the next day, and I’d get a great deal on them. I came home and made this amazing sorbet with overripe peaches and mixed in a cinnamon streusel crumble cookie… I remembered craving it a week later and went to the store and was so disappointed that all they had was lemon, mango and raspberry… Why did everybody forget about sorbet? Why hasn’t sorbet been reimagined?

How has that product line evolved since then?

Ms. Cardone: Instead of selling pints we’ve been focused on selling the novelty bars. We prefer novelty because it’s easy, grab-and-go, portion controlled… but having a fruit bar that’s soft. All the fruit bars out there right now are the hard paletas. Those are great for what they are, but we wanted something that was more in between a hard fruit bar and an indulgent dipped ice cream bar… I think it’s got a clear market position now. 

Tell me more about Fudgy Pop.

Deborah Gorman: I like indulgent fudgy, gooey, brownie-like intense chocolate. I’ve always felt like chocolate ice cream is like watered-down chocolate… and as a kid I loved eating fudgsicles. … I started trying them again, and they just weren’t what I remembered. We decided we wanted a fudge bar that kind of eats like a candy bar.

Ms. Cardone: The style of the brand is very retro. We joke that, ‘Is it a throwback or a comeback?’ It’s both. We really think there’s something about eating a fudge bar that’s nostalgic, it’s simple, it’s not complicated, but we think it’s something most people can appreciate.

What’s your go-to-market plan for Fudgy Pop?

Ms. Cardone: Going into next year, we’ll probably be in about 1,500 doors. What we’re seeing is the opportunity for Fudgy in a lot of the same distribution points as SorBabes. … But one of the reasons Fudgy was so interesting to us is we’ve found SorBabes plays really well in the natural and specialty space and select conventional retailers… Fudgy has a much more conventional appeal, so we’re kind of leaning into slightly different retailers for each.

How did you get involved with Wells Enterprises?

Ms. Gorman: In 2016, they hired us as full-time consultants to work along with their executive team. We went to all the sales meetings. We had a brand manager. We went from being this tiny little startup with just the two of us to being in the middle of Iowa in cornfields at corporate meetings. It was a great experience, and we learned a lot, but one of the things was seeing how they had multiple brands that didn’t compete and did different things.

I think a lot of times you’re so focused on the brand that you just want that brand to exist and continue and have offshoots… and I think it doesn’t always make sense. I think there are certain brands that have a purpose, and a reason people know them for that, and they have to stick to their lane. I’ve seen it a lot with brands that try to follow trends, and it just doesn’t make sense or fit in with your brand proposition. 

Will Fruitful Brands continue to grow beyond SorBabes and Fudgy Pop into a stable of brands?

Ms. Cardone: We are definitely proving out this theory that we are able to bring in synergies like this. … We already have in mind another brand we want to launch. We see another opportunity in the category, but really what’s happening now is it’s getting bigger than the two of us. We’ve never raised money. We own 100% of our business, and that has in a lot of ways held us back from doing bigger things because we just didn’t have the capital.

It’s kind of amazing that you haven’t raised any money in 12 years of business.

Ms. Gorman: Nicole is a cash flow magician… I think working with Wells for those four years, too, was really helpful and got us through some of it, but also we realized where we don’t need to be spending a lot of money. We have held ourselves back and haven’t taken advantage of what could be great opportunities because we couldn’t fund them.

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