How an Obsessive Movie-Goer Reinvented the Theater's Favorite Food This entrepreneur turned his popcorn problem into a profitable business.
By Gloria Dawson •
This story appears in the December 2016 issue of Entrepreneur. Subscribe »
Bric Simpson was a genuine movie buff: He hit the theater about five times a month. That also made him attuned to the finer points of snacking, and he had some problems. "You pay a premium price for popcorn, but they only butter the top layer. An inch down, you've got almost a whole bucket of popcorn that tastes like cardboard," he says. In 2009, Simpson and his wife were shaking a popcorn bucket to distribute the butter when she said, "You know what we need? A lid."
Related: Seizing Opportunity Led to the Creation of This Outlet Franchise
Today, Simpson has made that lid -- along with a company, Kernel King, that sells about 100,000 of them a month nationwide. But the process wasn't easy. He had to juggle his business while working full-time for the Army National Guard, and he needed to figure out how to break into the largely change-averse theater industry. But now that he has, Simpson's next goal is a big one: He wants his lid to be as ubiquitous as movie popcorn itself.
