History of Chupa Chups - Spain

HISTORY OF CHUPA CHUPS S.A.

Spain's Chupa Chups S.A. ( it comes from the Spanish verb 'chupar,' to lick) is the world's leading manufacturer and distributor of lollipops. The company's famed logo--designed by Salvador Dali & mdashorns the company extensive line of lollipops, featuring more than 50 different flavours and flavour combinations and sold in a variety of packaging, from traditional lollipops, to motorized lollipops and tubes, cans and other specially designed packaging, such as the Mobile Pop shaped like a cellular phone and featuring a functional calculator, or the Chupa & plus; Surprise, introduced in 2000, which bundles snap-together toys with the company's lollipops. In the 1990s, Chupa Chups, which takes credit for providing the well-known prop for famous 1970s television detective Kojak, branched out from its long-held lollipop specialty to introduce products directed at new markets. The company's Crazy Planet subsidiary creates a line of value-added candy, lollipop, and toy products, geared particularly to the children's and adolescent markets, including Crazy Zoo, which features a toy inside a chocolate egg, and the Gum Watch, a wristwatch chewing gum dispenser. Chupa Chups has also launched its first line of products targeting the adult market, the Smint range of flavored breath mints. Chupa Chups sells its products in more than 160 countries, with production facilities in Spain, France, Russia, Mexico, and China. Some 93 percent of its sales, which reached Pta 73 billion (US$445 million) in 1999, are generated outside of Spain. A privately held company, Chupa Chups is led by founder, President, and CEO Xavier Bernat.

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES:

Chupa Chups as a Spanish company with an international outlook, operates in a frontier-free global market. Its effectiveness is based on the go-getting character of its staff combined with a deep-rooted commercial attitude inherited from the Catalan, Spanish and pan-European cultures. Its aim is to stand out as the leader in all the product lines in which it participates. To do this it centers its efforts on new markets where the areas of marketing and commercial and industrial know-how are key competitive angles.

SUCCESS IN DOMESTIC MARKET (STICKING TO SUCCESS)

The predecessor company to Chupa Chups S.A. was founded in 1946 as Granja Asturias S.A. Originally specializing in apple-based sweets, the small Asturias-based company nearly folded in the early 1950s. That was when Enrique Bernat--the grandson of a Barcelona candymaker--joined the company and set to work transforming the artisan operation into a production giant capable of manufacturing and distributing its products across the world. By the late 1950s, Bernat had succeeding in turning the company around--and received 50 percent of the company for his efforts in 1958. Bernat decided to buy out the rest of the company, and then transform it entirely.

During the decade, Bernat had begun investigating a new product idea. Recognizing the majority of Spain's candies were being consumed by children, Bernat sought to create a product specifically for this market. Most candies at the time were traditional sugar-based drops--which tended to produce a sticky mess in children's hands. Bernat's idea was simple: he began inserting sticks into the candies--originally a piece of metal&mdashø function as a handle, or, as Bernat himself said, 'like eating a sweet on a fork.' Bernat eventually named his candy the Chups, after the Spanish verb 'chupar,' or 'to lick.' A major moment in the Chupa Chups brand history came in 1969 when the company adopted a new logo. For this, Bernat turned to friend--and world-renowned surrealist painter--Salvador Dali, who quickly devised the company's daisy-shaped logo and bright