Mike and Ike

Mike and Ike — nobody knows who they are, including the company that named them.
 

Sam Born arrived in America from Russia and made his first money on a machine. It inserted sticks into lollipops automatically, which until then had been done by hand, and it was profitable enough to start a company on. He called it Just Born — a claim about freshness and a joke about his own surname — and in 1940, from a factory in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, it produced the fruit chew that became the firm's defining product.
 

Where the name came from, nobody can say. Just Born has offered several explanations over the years: a vaudeville song, an internal naming competition, the names of the men who developed it. None has ever been confirmed, and the company has been open about not knowing. The most repeated theory points to a newspaper comic strip called Mike and Ike (They Look Alike) — except that strip had finished before the sweet existed. Two characters with no origin, on one of the best-selling boxes in American confectionery.
 

Being fictional turned out to be an asset. In 2012 Just Born spent a reported fifteen million dollars staging a public breakup between them. Mike wanted to pursue music, Ike wanted to make art, and they had fallen out over creative differences. Boxes went to shelf with one name scored through. The pair kept up a feud across social media for the best part of a year before reconciling. It remains one of the odder marketing campaigns in confectionery, and it worked precisely because there was never anyone real to contradict it.
 

Sweet and Glory stocks Mike and Ike wholesale for UK retailers.
 

The Mike and Ike Range
 

The Original assortment is the core of the range, sitting alongside single-flavour packs for customers with a preference and a set of themed mixes that bundle particular flavour groups together. There is a full sour line running in parallel, and a steady rotation of seasonal editions through Christmas, Valentine's and Halloween.
 

Formats are one of the brand's real strengths. Changemaker boxes are built for a counter and a handful of coins, theatre boxes and peg bags fill shelving, stand-up pouches suit sharing, and the larger cases work for pick and mix. Individual flavours and seasonal lines rotate with each shipment, so it is worth checking the current range for what is in stock now. UK compliance labels are supplied with every order.
 

Why Stock Mike and Ike?
 

This is a brand that earns its place on price architecture rather than novelty. The Changemaker box is deliberately built to be bought with loose change, which makes it one of the few American lines that works as a genuine everyday counter purchase rather than an occasional treat. Stock that alongside the larger formats and you have the same brand serving a schoolchild and a family shop.
 

The flavour-specific packs are worth attention too. Mike and Ike drinkers — eaters, rather — tend to have a firm favourite and will buy a whole box of it rather than pick through an assortment, so stocking two or three single flavours alongside the Original turns one line into several. The sour range then reaches a different customer entirely without needing a separate brand on the shelf.
 

For the full flavour list, format breakdown and history, read our complete guide to Mike and Ike.
 

Frequently Asked Questions
 

Who are Mike and Ike?
 

Nobody knows, and that includes Just Born, the company that has made the sweet since 1940. Over the years it has suggested a vaudeville song, an internal naming contest and the names of the developers, without ever settling on one. A popular theory credits a comic strip called Mike and Ike (They Look Alike), but that strip had ended before the sweet launched. They are two characters with no confirmed origin at all.
 

Did Mike and Ike really break up?
 

They are fictional, so no — but the campaign was real. In 2012 Just Born spent a reported fifteen million dollars on a staged split, shipping boxes with one name crossed out and running a months-long feud across social media in which Mike took up music and Ike took up art. They were reconciled the following year. The packaging from that period is now collected.
 

What is a Changemaker box?
 

A small 22g box designed to be sold for loose change at a counter. It is the smallest format in the range and the one that drives impulse purchases, particularly near a till or in a shop with a lot of passing schoolchildren. Most flavours in the range appear in this format as well as the larger ones.
 

Where can I buy Mike and Ike wholesale in the UK?
 

Sweet and Glory supplies Mike and Ike wholesale across the UK with no minimum order, dispatched from our Manchester warehouse.
 

What is the minimum order for Mike and Ike wholesale?
 

There is no minimum order. The first parcel is free on orders over £150 ex VAT, with additional boxes charged at £7.10 each. Pallet delivery is free over £650 ex VAT. Everything is dispatched from our Manchester warehouse.