Whatever Happened To Just The Cheese After Shark Tank?
Even the cheesiest of prospects can fly on "Shark Tank." Take a look at Just The Cheese, a snack alternative for those sensitive to wheat, gluten, and other allergens. Just The Cheese is made of 100 percent pure cheese, sliced and baked into a crispy chip. And there's nothing else in it but cheese, so unless you're allergic to dairy or just hate the taste of cheese, you're bound to be able to enjoy it.
It's hard to forget company founder David Scharfman, who comes from a Wisconsin-area farming family and wanted to get an investor to help him mass-market his snack. He showed up in a cheese print tuxedo on "Shark Tank" to sell his wares. But Scharfman also displays a strong sense of business acumen during his appearance and refuses to take several offers from the sharks that he feels are unsupportable with his business model or on the low side. While he walks away from the show without a deal, it turns out he was holding out for a bigger, better buyer. Just The Cheese is now a brand being sold all over the nation thanks to a larger company well-known for its nut blends — with no help at all from the Sharks.
What happened to Just The Cheese on Shark Tank?
Journeyman entrepreneur David Scharfman came home to Wisconsin and founded Just The Cheese after trying to find a way to sell American-style cheese to Asian consumers, who did not take to his products. Using a family recipe, by the time he pops up in Episode 19 of Season 11, Just The Cheese had recorded $3.7 million in sales in 2020 alone and can be bought in small mini-packs or larger two-bar packs.
The Sharks are pre-impressed by Scharfman's product before they taste it — Lori Greiner admits that she's bought the bars for her personal consumption — and are shocked each bar is only 75 calories. Scharfman explains he's looking for $500,000 for a 5% stake in his company. The Sharks note how thin the profit margin is when Scharfman says they make each cracker for $0.99 and sell at a markup of $1.99.
A Shark-based offering frenzy sets in. Kevin O'Leary is the first one to try to make a deal, offering $500,000 for a $0.20 perpetual royalty on every cracker. The rest of the Sharks drop out, but Lori Greiner rejoins the conversation with an offer of $500,000 for a $0.15 royalty per bar. After doing some math, Scharfman offers them a $0.05 a bar royalty for ten years. When Greiner offers to change her royalty offer from perpetual payments to having the agreement conclude when she makes back $750,000, Scharfman balks and says it will put too much stress on the business. Greiner drops out, but Mark Cuban pops back in with a $500,000 offer at 15% equity with no royalty payments involved. Scharfman counters with a 7.5% offer, but Cuban withdraws, leaving the cheese entrepreneur without a deal.
Just The Cheese After Shark Tank
Just The Cheese already had some positive buzz surrounding it before "Shark Tank"; the product had been recommended in an article on Food Network's website, and had also appeared in a BuzzFeed article. The company had just begun selling its wares in 7-11s, according to what David Scharfman said on "Shark Tank." That positive word of mouth continued to build after "Shark Tank," and the company began to sell at an even greater capacity, ending up in Walmart, Target, and Amazon. Eventually, Target apparently dropped the company, but that couldn't stop its momentum.
In the end, Scharfman scored the deal he wanted for his company. In December 2022, DairyFoods.com reported that Scahrfman sold Just The Cheese to John B. Sanfilippo & Son. The company is mainly known for selling various nuts, mixed nuts, and nut butters under the Fisher Nuts banner. It also has Orchard Valley Harvest snacks and nuts, Squirrel Nuts — which mainly sells gourmet-style nuts — and snack mix company Southern Style Nuts brand under its corporate umbrella.
"The acquisition of Just The Cheese, which currently will not have a significant impact on our financial results, will provide us a product that expands our portfolio into new snacking categories. Additionally, the assets and capabilities acquired will be complimentary to our existing product portfolio and are expected to lead to exciting innovation opportunities," Jeffery T. Sanfilippo of John B. Sanfilippo & Son told DairyFoods.com via a press release. And indeed, they have continued to do just that.
Is Just The Cheese still in business?
Just The Cheese is a solid example of yet another company the Sharks failed to bite into that managed to make it into even more stores after appearing on the series. Without any financial help from the panel, the national reach of John B. Sanfilippo & Son further boosted the reach of the brand and made Just The Cheese even more of a household name. As of press time, you can buy three varieties of Just The Cheese — Aged Cheddar, Grilled Cheese, and Jalapeno — in local supermarkets, national supermarket chains, and national big-box chains such as Walmart. You can even purchase packs of the snacks on Amazon, where it's currently the 25th most popular snack chip they have for sale. As of press time, they are definitely still in business.
That means Just The Cheese continues to survive and thrive, even though it's now a subsidiary of a larger brand. And though the company's X, formerly known as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram accounts haven't updated since December 2022, you can still munch the crispy cheese chips to this day. That's a victory no matter how many ways you slice it.
What's next for Just The Cheese and David Scharfman?
The new company behind Just The Cheese hasn't announced any new products as of press time, but you can continue to follow the brand via their official website. Presumably, they're going to keep promoting the product and selling it — and might even add some new flavors, should customers demand them. While it's not likely to become the best-selling product to come out of "Shark Tank" any time soon, it seems to be doing well for itself.
As for David Scharfman, he announced on his LinkedIn that he's still working for his family's company, Specialty Cheese Company Inc. He became the Vice President of Growth in December 2022 after he sold Just The Cheese, and declared that he's planning on concentrating on growing the fresh cheese side of the business. He keeps an active presence on X, formerly known as Twitter, where he holds court on everything from football to the state of the world.
In the end, Scharfman stuck to his guns until he found just the right home for his company and landed just the right deal for himself. The fact that Just The Cheese still managed to make a worldwide impact, even though Scharfman didn't land an agreement with the Sharks, just goes to show that you don't necessarily need corporate guidance to land yourself a whole lot of cheddar.