A bowl of cornflakes for breakfast is very popular with children. Unfortunately, many products are full of sugar. “Breakfast cereals should actually be on the candy shelf because they consist of up to a quarter of sugar,” says Spacies founder Rouven Kosel. Together with his partner Carsten Hinzer, he presented his alternative in the “Lion’s Den”: cereals with a space design, almost completely free of sugar, but with extra protein (and lots of sweeteners).
The Spacies makers can boast a prominent business partner: Rapper Cro is on board with the start-up and is promoting the breakfast product just like other rappers have previously promoted their iced teas. The singer also had his own Cro-branded Spacies variety created. Despite the high price of just under 7 euros per pack, the Spacies are selling quite well online; in the “Lion’s Den” the founders are looking for a partner to enter the retail sector.
This expertise is clearly present there, but the lions are critical of the Spacies cereals. They do praise the space theme and the taste. But the selling price is too high for them and the margin is too small. “I think your product is not marketable,” says food entrepreneur Tillman Schulz. He also fears that he will constantly have to add capital for production. As an investor you have to get your money back at some point. “I won’t see that for a long time.”
The company structure also raises eyebrows among the lions. In addition to lions and panda rapper Cro, other investors are also expected to come on board. In addition, Spacies is founded under the umbrella of a company builder who is also allowed to have a say, while the founders themselves do not have any shares in the company at the time of the pitch, only options for it. “I don’t like the structure,” says Carsten Maschmeyer, and retail expert Ralf Dümmel agrees. When it comes to entrepreneurship, everything is never fixed, “but nothing is fixed here,” notes Dagmar Wöhrl, and Nils Glagau also sends greetings to Cro and is out.
So the TV appearance that was recorded in the spring didn’t work out with a lion’s share of deals. The remaining plans have since come to fruition, co-founder Hinzer reports to stern. Cro and other investors actually came on board as partners. The two founders were able to exercise their options and now hold just over 50 percent of the company shares. The Spacies cereals are sold in their own online shop, and the founding duo also used Cro’s tour in the summer to present Spacies at the concerts. The company has six-figure monthly sales, says Hinzer.
Spacies is currently negotiating with several supermarket chains about entering the retail sector, which should be successful as soon as possible. The timing seems good, because top dog Kellogg’s has currently fallen out with Rewe and Edeka in price negotiations and is not supplying the two supermarket chains.
Minority shareholder Cro is also doing his best to make the Spacies known. He has just released an official promotional clip starring himself on his YouTube channel. In the film he meets well-known advertising characters from Kellogg’s competitors in a self-help group, all of whom are addicted to cereals full of sugar.
