Pop Brothers Strike a Deal

Murky Waters, Chandeleur Brewing Company, Corks and Cleaver, and Tony’s Pizzeria are all local Gulfport businesses that gained national attention. Now, tasty frozen treat spot Pop Brothers is in the spotlight. Last night, the local popsicle shop was featured on CNBC’s “Billion Dollar Buyer” and they scored a deal of a lifetime.
Pop Brothers set up shop just over a year ago in Gulfport, but they’ve been busier than usual as they’ve worked closely with wealthy businessman Tilman Fertitta over a span of three months, as seen on Tuesday night’s “Billion Dollar Buyer” on CNBC. Pop Brothers Owner Octavio Arzola said, “My wife and I, and Chuck, my partner, we were on the phone almost a hundred times a day with the production team. They put these goals where you had to do things immediately. you know it was always this has to happen today.”
Their hard work paid off, eventually landing a $65,000 deal with the famous billionaire businessman. “We have seven properties right now, a majority of them in Texas, Galveston, Houston, and then we obviously have the Golden Nugget here in Biloxi,” said Arzola.
The team hit gold in the show at the Golden Nugget pool, selling more than the 100 popsicle sales required while earning an 81 percent five star satisfaction rate. “Our numbers in Galveston were even better. We were in 96 and 98 percent which he actually said on the show that he had never had those numbers from any product that he had tasted,” said Arzola.
While lots of people agree these are tasty popsicles, the road to a $65,000 deal wasn’t an easy one. The standard ten hour drive to Galveston took Arzola about 20 hours as he pushed through heavy downpours and flooding in Louisiana. “For us it was super important to show to them that we will take it to you no matter what. We wanted to prove that this small company was able to take care of them.”
And the $5 a pop price point wasn’t satisfactory for Fertitta, but as the Pop Brothers team explained fresh locally sourced and unique exotic ingredients don’t come cheap. “During the last board room filming, we just stood our ground and said ‘no this is the number, we cannot go any lower than that.’ And he ended up taking it,” said Arzola.