The beginnings of Chupa Chups

Enric Bernat was the owner of his confectionery factory from 1950 to 1954 Products Bernat. In 1954 this company merged with the larger one, which was in financial difficulties Granja Asturias, which processed different products from apples. Bernat received 50% of the company and suggested specializing in one product. 1957 or 1958 the company became his complete property and he was able to realize his plans. A study he commissioned found that children were the main consumers of the sweets, although according to the study they were not designed to be child-friendly because children smeared their fingers on the sticky candies. So he developed candies on a stick (lollipops) and patented this idea. From then on, the company focused on this new type of sweet and was founded in 1964 Chupa Chups renamed.

Chupa Chups quickly became successful. The 1960s and especially the 1970s were characterized by innovation. As early as 1960, Bernat bought the mechanical engineering company Confipack SA and subsequently converted the hand-made production of his confectionery to mass production. This is how the permanent lollipops finally got their uniformly round shape. Further innovations affected the recipe of the confectionery, so that it was less sticky, could be preserved longer and was produced in different flavors. He also invested in marketing and sales, which made Chupa Chups the market leader in Spain. In 1969 the first branch abroad (in Bayonne, France).

At the end of the 1970s and especially in the 1980s, the company's radius expanded worldwide. In 1991, Enric Bernat's son Xavier took over the operational business. The subsidiary company Smint was founded in 1994. In 1995 a Chupa-Chups lollipop was introduced Me Space station brought. In 2003, the year its founder died, the company employed 2,000 people and sold four billion lollipops in 170 countries, making 500 million Euro Sales, 90% of which are abroad.

After a strategic alliance (joint venture) with the Italian-Dutch company since 1996 Perfetti Van Melle Group, one of the world's largest confectionery manufacturers, the Catalan business family Bernat decided in July 2006 to sell the majority stake in Chupa Chups to Perfetti Van Melle for around 400 million euros. Continue reading...