Chupa Chups

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Chupa Chups SA
Type a wholly owned subsidiary of Perfetti Van Melle
Founded 1958
Headquarters Lainate, Italy and Breda, Netherlands
Key people Xavier Bernat, CEO
Industry Confectionery
Revenue 500 million EUR (2006)
Employees 2 000 (2006)
Website www.chupachups.com

Chupa Chups is an originally Spanish lollipop company founded by Barcelona native Enric Bernat in 1958, and currently owned by the Dutch-Italian multinational corporation Perfetti Van Melle. The name is pronounced [ˈtʃupaˈtʃups] (English: /ˈtʃʌpətʃʌps/) and comes from the Spanish verb chupar, meaning "to suck".

Contents

[edit] History

In the early 1950s, Bernat worked for an apple jam factory. After he broached the idea of making lollipops, the investors left. Bernat took over the company in 1958 and renamed it Chupa Chups. He built the production machines and sold a striped bonbon on a wooden stick for one peseta each.

Bernat got the idea of a "bonbon with a stick" from a cursing mother as her child got sticky hands from melting sweets. Bernat felt that at that time, sweets were not designed with the main consumers—children—in mind. Shopkeepers were instructed to place the lollipops near the cash register within reach of children's hands, instead of the traditional placement behind the counter.

A giant Chupa Chups lollipop for sale

The Chupa Chups company was a success. Within five years Bernat's sweets were being sold at 300,000 outlets. When the candy was first created, the lolly sticks were made of wood but they switched to plastic sticks as a result of the Spanish wood shortage. After the end of the Francisco Franco dictatorship (1939–1975), the self-funded private company went international. In the 1970s the colorful lollipops appeared in Southeast Asian nations, such as Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia, as well as Australia. In the 1980s it expanded to the European and North American markets, and in the 1990s to most Asian countries. In China they were manufactured by tatagum in Panyu, near Guangzhou. In 1995 a Chupa Chups lollipop was brought to the Mir space station. As of 2003, 4 billion lollipops a year are sold to 150 countries. The company has 2000 employees, makes 90 percent of its sales abroad, and has a turnover of €500,000,000.

In 1991, Bernat passed formal control of "Chupa Chups" to his son Xavier. The Smint subsidiary brand/company was founded in 1994.

In July 2006 the company as a whole was acquired by the Dutch-Italian group Perfetti Van Melle.[1]

[edit] Marketing

The Chupa Chups logo was designed in 1969 by Artist Salvador Dali. Its first marketing campaign was the logo with the slogan "És rodó i dura molt, Chupa Chups", which translates from Catalan as "It's round and long-lasting." Later, celebrities like Madonna were hired to advertise. In the 1980s, owing to falling birth rates, an anti-smoking slogan "Smoke Chupa Chups" was tried to attract further adult consumers.

A 1970s campaign for Chupa Chups in Australia used the slogan "what a sweet half hour".

Chupa Chups ran a promotion featuring the Spice Girls with their Fantasy Ball Lollipops and Crazy Dips in 1997 and 1998.

The game Zool and its sequel Zool 2, originally produced for the Amiga, featured pervasive product placement by Chupa Chups.

They once sponsored Spanish MotoGP Rider Jorge Lorenzo.

[edit] Tastes

Flavors vary from country to country.

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Perfetti Van Melle agrees to buy Spain's Chupa Chups for undisclosed sum". Forbes. 2006-07-03. http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2006/07/03/afx2855088.html. 
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupa_Chups"
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