SHAWNEE, Kan. — Every shipment of Fantastical Droppings candy comes in a box hand-decorated by the Shawnee candy company’s "Little CEO."
Charlotte Urban is 7 years old and she's the Boss of the Applesauce for Fantastical Droppings — which is the brainchild of her father, Lee Urban, and sells strawberry licorice under the brand names Unicorn (Butt) Candy and Troll Turds.
It also started as a joke among Lee, his wife and their best friends four years ago.
"We were on a text chain and we were talking about our kids getting together in our backyards to play," Lee said. “There was a unicorn inflatable that was shooting water. The joke was, 'Well, that's great it shoots water but just imagine if it shot candy out of its butt.' We were just laughing about how they'd be out there for hours and, as adults, we would be inside and not need a babysitter, because the inflatable would take care of them."
The idea stuck with Lee — a lawyer by trade, who thought Unicorn (Butt) Candy "would be a really cool brand" — though he didn’t know the first thing about starting up a candy company.
"I just started cold-calling candy executives," he said, "saying like, 'How do you make candy? How does it work? What’s the supply chain?'"
Growing up in Hays, Kansas, Lee remembered his grandfather having stashes of licorice, which is how Fantastical Droppings settled on the type of candy it would sell, but as the joke morphed into something real Charlotte started to take notice.
"Charlotte saw one of our designers working on the unicorn, specifically, and a troll because I thought we’d have to have two brands," Lee said. "That’s where it clicked. In that moment, when she was engaged seeing the designer put together the troll and the unicorn, I was like, 'I'm going to make this a daddy-daughter company.' So, it went from a joke to 'Oh, this is fun learning about the process' to now I’m going to create a company that I can spend time with my daughter."
That's how the more kid-friendly brand, Troll Turds, was added.
"Once I sort of turned from a dad company to a dad-daughter company, I had Charlotte pick out everything," Lee said. "Branding, colors, the troll, the unicorn — she was very involved in the process from the very beginning."
It was Charlotte's idea to add poop jokes to the bottom of every bag of candy.
"She was like, 'We need to have some poop jokes, if this is going to be a poop-based company,'" Lee said. "We were scrolling through the internet just rolling out poop jokes. It just became fun — what are we going to put on the bottom of our bags?"
Among Charlotte’s favorite jokes: "Why did the toilet paper roll down the hill?"
The answer: "He needed to get to the bottom" then she pointed to her derriere.
Through Fantastical Droppings, Charlotte has learned about sales, marketing, budgets and branding, but it’s the creative side she’s embraced most.
"The artistic side, if you look at our boxes ... we sign every retail box, every consumer box that goes out," Lee said. "Sometimes she'll draw on that or she’ll do special stickers. I think that's really the big thing I’ve seen her take away, it's multiplied her artistic desire quite a bit."
But Charlotte also learned about giving back.
Lee and Charlotte don’t take a salary and instead donate the proceeds from Fantastical Droppings to charity, including an annual gift — in money or candy — to Children’s Mercy Hospital.
"We always call in advance to see what the biggest need is for the year, then we drive it down," Lee said. "And I can say, 'Hey, look, this is why we’re doing the company. I want you to know how important it is to give back to people that have needs or a struggle. It’s really important to give back and, secondly, we're going to lift these kids up. This is fun. This is a fun candy company and hopefully we can bring some hope and spirit to them.'"
The licorice is made in Minnesota and shipped in bulk to Lenexa, where it’s packaged for retail sale.
Fantastical Droppings' offerings are currently available online and in two Shawnee liquor stores — K-7 Liquors, 22088 W. 66th St., and Missies Liquor Store, 11938 Shawnee Mission Parkway — with plans to expand to more locations.
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KSHB 41 reporter Tod Palmer covers sports business and eastern Jackson County. Share your story idea with Tod.
