Peaceful Fruits

Evan Delahanty wants the Sharks to bite on Peaceful Fruits, his fruit snacks with a social conscience, in Shark Tank episode 816. The snack’s main ingredient is wild-harvested açaí berries – a food he discovered while working as a Peace Corps Community Economic Development Specialist in the Amazon rainforest. Now, he makes the snacks in Akron, Ohio where he employs people with disabilities from the community.

He launched a successful Kickstarter campaign in August, 2016 where he raised $22,848 to get the product on the floor at Expo East, a HUGE natural products food show that took place in September 2016 in Baltimore, MD. It cost $10,000 to get a booth at the show, not to mention the cost of providing product samples, literature, travel etc.

Peaceful Fruits come in two flavors: Wild Acai + Pineapple and Wild Acai + Apple. The primary ingredient, the açaí berry, is harvested wild by local people of the Amazon Rainforest. This provides Delahanty with a sustainable source for ingredients and gives indigenous people in the rainforest a way to earn income while preserving their way of life. As the company philosophy says: “snacks made the right way, from the right stuff.”

A 12 pack of snacks costs about 14 bucks. Each packet contains a fruit strip with over 25 açaí berries in each strip. There’s no sugar, preservatives, or any other crap in each strip – just fruit. Obviously, Delahanty needs a Shark’s help getting into mass retail; he probably needs capital for growth, too. Will a Shark bite on these berries?

Peaceful Fruits Shark Tank Recap

Evan enters seeking $75,000 for 20% of his company. He tells the Sharks about his product , how he makes it and his social mission. He hands out samples and Daymond thinks they’re good. Mark remarked that there are a lot of acai fruit snacks. Lori likes the health benefits of the fruit.

Robert already has a fruit snack business, so he goes out. Kevin wants to know numbers. Evan wholesales the snacks for $0.85 a pack and retails them for $1.25. He’s done about $20,000 in sales so far. He’s gettin g ready to do a test run in Ohio Whole Foods stores and has product in Giant Eagle stores. Evan pledges to “live in Whole Foods” doing product demos. That prompts Daymond to go out – he wants nothing to do with demos.

Mark doesn’t like the risk/reward ratio and he goes out. Kevin doesn’t think the valuation is bad, but he thinks it will take more than $75,000 to get things rolling. He won’t offer a higher amount and he goes out. Lori thinks fruit snacks are too competitive and she goes out too. RESULT: NO DEAL

Peaceful Fruits Shark Tank Update

The Shark Tank Blog constantly provides updates and follow-ups about entrepreneurs who have appeared on the Shark Tank TV show. After airing, Peaceful Fruit was “flooded” with $75,000 in orders. They’ve added six new flavors: Blueberry & Acai Drizzle, Passionfruit, Pineapple & Acai Drizzle, Mango, Strawberry & Acai Drizzle, and Original Acai. In addition to Whole Foods, they are in nearly 50 Kroger stores across Ohio.

In 2018, they expanded production capacity from 1000 units a day to 10,000 units a day. They now offer a monthly subscription service and are in a limited amount of Target and Kroger stores.

As of 2020, they employed 40 adults with disabilities and the company is still going strong in 2021. As of June, 2022, the products are no longer at Target and Kroger. Still, they employ 61 people and have $12 million in annual revenue.