In 2022, Katie Lefkowitz turned something daunting into a business idea.
The Snickers fanatic reimagined her love of confection after a 2018 medical diagnosis forced her to cut back on sweets.
“It put my world upside down,” she said in an interview with Food Dive.
Now, six years later, Lefkowitz’s candy bar brand Harken Sweets is available in retail stores across the country. The brand officially launched in March of 2022 and early distribution was done through its website, ShopRite, Fairway, Gourmet Garage and PopUp Grocer. On April 1, the company announced a major retail push with its launch in 3,500 Walmarts nationwide.
This week the company expanded its retail strategy with the launch of an additional 1,000 stores on Aug. 27 such as at HyVee, The Fresh Market, Albertsons, United Supermarkets, Market Street, and Better Health Market.
Harken has had 50% growth quarter over quarter and Lefkowitz said the most recent expansion into retail holds true to her desire for the bars to be accessible to a wider, more diverse consumer audience and available to customers who do not shop at premium grocery stores.
According to Innova’s consumer snacking trends, one-third of consumers globally report increasing their consumption of healthy snacks over the past year.
Specialty ingredients, including dates and prebiotics, have been driving the ingredients market as more consumers are buying foods that market themselves as healthy without wanting to miss out on their favorite foods and treats.
From better-for-you pizza to candy
At the time of her diagnosis in 2018, Lefkowitz was working in the biopharma space at The Boston Consulting Group and through launching drugs to treat chronic diseases, Lefkowitz realized how much of a role diet can play in overall health in the first place. “That’s how I found myself in the better-for-you food space,” she said.
Following her time at BCG, Lefkowitz went on to become cheif operating officer at Caulipower, a brand focusing on incorporating ingredients like cauliflower into fan favorite foods such as pizza and chicken nuggets.
When Lefkowitz was told she needed to incorporate more fiber into her diet, she realized she no longer could have her favorite sweets.
In her search for alternatives, she started to test out recipes on her own and found proof of concept on TikTok, where many creators were customizing their own bars with perceived healthy ingredients and mix-ins.
Lefkowitz left Caulipower in December 2021 to go out on her own venture.
“For them, it was about infusing cauliflower and other superfoods into the comfort foods of pizza, etc. So a lot of that really did inspire taking oats and dates and infusing it into the comfort food of chocolate candy,” said Lefkowitz.
The name of Lefkowitz’s candy bar came from the idea that folks could ‘harken back’ to the “good old days,” where they could enjoy all of their favorite candies and food and not feel guilty about it.
Standing on nutrition
The bars feature ingredients such as dates, prebiotic tapioca, sunchokes, oats and fair trade cocoa powder.
The recipe started with Lefkowitz’s family recipe for date caramel, and then started to incorporate other specialty ingredients as well.
The company sells its products in three varieties: The Crunchy one, which features the brand’s signature date caramel and pretzel pieces and is then covered with oat milk-based chocolate. The Gooey One also has date caramel with a nougat layer and is then covered with oat milk-based chocolate. And the Nutty One is the same as the gooey offering but with peanut pieces.
“Oats are another superfood ingredient included in all of our products, and the nice thing is we are able to make our chocolate plant based. The other interesting thing that we’ve been using is sunchokes, which are an excellent source of fiber.”
Because of her background at Caulipower, Lefkowitz has been very thoughtful about Harken’s placement in the space.
Deciding to distribute through Walmart was intended to make the products available to as many consumers as possible, instead of just at higher-end retailers like niche specialty stores.
In terms of competition, Lefkowitz said what sets Harken Sweets apart is its ingredients and ingredient quality.
“The market has evolved from early days when it was just Snickers and Kit Kats, and then more natural brands started to pop up — like Unreal, Little Secrets, and what they did was really important, in that they removed corn syrup from those original products, and really cleaned up the ingredients, but didn’t necessarily change the macro nutrient profile substantially,” said Lefkowitz, “and that’s where Harken comes in.”
