Exotic Lollipops Give Spanish Firm a Global Flavor

B A R C E L O N A, Spain, May 3, 2001 -- Throw a dart at a globe and chances areyou'll hit a country where Chupa Chups is selling lollipops, with52 flavors catering to every kind of palate.

The Spanish candy giant's 4 billion suckers a year are tailoredto tastes in 170 countries, ranging from licorice-flavored for theNetherlands to lichee or tea for China. At one time or another themenu's been graced by root beer for Americans and "tarte tintin,"a kind of apple pie, for the ever-finicky French.

A Coke tastes pretty much the same no matter where it's sold.But Chupa Chups says pampering taste buds with myriad flavors workswonders with sales.

"We try to be global by acting local," said Belgian-bornmarketing director Xavier de Lame, one of many polyglots at ChupaChups' Barcelona headquarters. Others speak German, Russian, Arabicor Chinese, one way the lollipop maker stays in touch with foreignmarkets.

It's all part of the story of how a firm that began pitching itswares from compact cars that putt-putted around Spain in the 1960shas blossomed and adapted to the global economy.

Sweet Expansion

Chupa Chups launched an international expansion drive in the1980s, started tinkering with its product to carry native favor andnever looked back. Now, 90 percent of its sales are abroad.

"The only countries we don't operate in are ones where theywon't let us in, like North Korea or Iran, or are too small orinaccessible to make it worthwhile," said Miguel Otero, thecommunications director.

In Spain, Chupa Chups is so engrained in society that its brandname is essentially the Spanish word for lollipop, much like Xeroxfor English-speakers grew into a verb meaning to photocopy.

Chupa Chups has two factories in Spain and one each in France,Mexico, Russia and China, with a global work force of 1,900.

It posted $440 million in sales last year; the privately ownedcompany declines to disclose profits. Chupa Chups ranked sixth inthe world in 1999 among hard candy sellers, excluding makers ofchocolate or gum, according to London-based market researcherEuromonitor.

Besides lollipops, Chupa Chups makes breath mints and noveltieslike toys that double as candy dispensers.

Across the Pond

Chupa Chups' main competitor in lollipops is Chicago-basedTootsie Roll Industries. It sells Tootsie Pops in 50 countries, catering to local tastes in some of them but centering on five core flavors, says the company's president, Ellen Gordon.

The first part of Chupa Chups' name comes from the Spanish verb"chupar," which means to suck. Chups is intended to be anonomatopoeia that mimics sticky lips letting go of a lollipop.

Eyeing faraway lands and huge, largely untapped markets likeChina and India, Chupa Chups says it wants to make that sloppysound as common as the crisp, pop-top opening of a can of popularsoft drink.

"We want to be the Coca-Cola of sugar confectionery," said de Lame.

Destination: Flavor

Even at the factory level, Chupa Chups' country-specificapproach is evident. Its bustling, high-tech plant outsideBarcelona keeps inventory to a minimum by producing only to fillfirm orders. Every lollipop has a predetermined destination.

Timoteo Cobo operates a machine that extrudes a long, conicalmass of pink, strawberry-flavored dough into a never-endingsuccession of cylindrical lollipops with a hole in the top. Thatturns them into whistles known as Melody Chups. This particularload is bound for Germany.

Chupa Chups wins over customers around the world byunderstanding and respecting their cultures.

In China, children surveyed by Chupa Chups said they'd beuncomfortable eating a lollipop in public because in their countrycandy is supposed to be shared.

The company has not yet figured out a way around that but istoying with packaging its suckers in twos or threes.

Another idea to boost sales in a land of 1.3 billion people,besides making lollipops that taste like lichee nuts, is to exploitthe fact that Chinese often hand out candy at weddings.

Muslim countries in the Middle East are another tricky market. Ateenage girl walking down the street and sucking on a lollipop canbe construed as trying to be seductive, de Lame said. One possiblesolution is to emphasize sales in places with more privacy, likecafes or movie theaters.

Not Just for Kids

Another key Chupa Chups strategy is to lure adults to lollipops.Fans include stars like Madonna and Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo,and press clippings show photos of these and other grown-upluminaries leisurely licking a sweet created for kids.

Chupa Chups has targeted everyone from ravers at nightclubs tocritics at fashion shows — in the latter case leaving a free sampleon seats beside Paris catwalks.

It also helps to get lucky. In 1993, the coach of the FCBarcelona soccer team, legendary Dutchman Johan Cruyff, took upeating Chupa Chups after he quit smoking because of heart trouble.Over the next year, sales in the surrounding Catalonia region ofSpain jumped sevenfold.

"Adults were no longer shy about going into a store, asking fora Chupa Chups and saying, 'It's for me, not for my kid,"' de Lamesaid.