Company founder, Linda York, has developed a product that supports healthy eating in kids while encouraging kids to have fun with their food. The company makes edible stickers featuring some of the hottest stars in the Pre-K universe, including PAW Patrol, Elmo and Sponge Bob.
The product is as easy to use as the company tagline “lick it! stick it! eat it!” implies.
Kids select an edible sticker from the collection, lick the flavor-free sticker and then stick it to any food that might need a little extra pizazz to make it appealing to a child’s palate, like a fruit or vegetable. The sticker adds whimsy to the food, but won’t change its flavor, ensuring kids experience the real taste of the food.
The California-based company, founded in 2017, already has distribution deals with some of the biggest food retailers in the country, including Walmart, Kroger, and Albertson Companies.
So, how does this West Coast company with so much buzz become a Milwaukee story?
York was introduced to the opportunities available in Wisconsin through the Fellows Program offered by the Food Finance Institute (FFI). The program, supported by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), provides business development education to any active food-focused business in the nation.
Through FFI program director, Brad Rostowfske, York discovered that Wisconsin is at the epicenter of the food manufacturing industry. All of the ingredient suppliers StickyLickits uses to make the edible stickers are located in the state. Already interested in the region, when Rostowfske shared WEDC business relocation incentives with the recent Fellows cohort, York began to seriously consider bringing StickyLickits to Wisconsin.
York contacted the Milwaukee 7 Partnership for Economic Development (M7), to explore relocating her company. After working with Rebecca Gries, the Vice President of Corporate Expansion and Attraction, York concluded, “Milwaukee is where we want to be. We liked what Milwaukee had to offer the most.”
The company quickly found a building on Milwaukee’s northwest side where it can manufacture the allergen-free, vegan edible stickers. The facility will be run by the former CEO of the company that worked with York to develop the proprietary recipe for the edible stickers.
StickyLickits is ready to begin doing business in Milwaukee. What stands in the way of this possible Milwaukee success story is funding.
StickyLickiets has been a bootstrapped company, until now. READ MORE at MKEstartup.news >