Chupa Chups Vending: "Choose Your Own Flavor".
For the past 5 years Andrew Lewis had been employed by the confectionary company Chupa Chups S.A., based in their Barcelona headquarters as area manager responsible for commercial and marketing activity in European markets. After 6 years of marketing experience with multinational consumer goods companies Andrew Lewis left Chupa Chups due to internal reorganization. Andrew still had many good friends at the company and had been asked to stay on as a marketing director for a subsidiary but declined for personal reasons.
Directly after leaving Chupa Chups Andrew was asked to join a large Catalan alcoholic beverage company. The firm is a leader in their industry and has significant international sales. The job was based in Barcelona (now his primary/only residence) and would focus on international marketing.
Three weeks before he was offered the job with the beverage company, Andrew entered discussions with a small Spanish manufacturing company named Discapa. Discapa manufactures vending equipment, and had just recently introduced a new lollipop vending machine, which was marketed in collaboration with Chupa Chups. Discapa wanted Andrew to be a freelance agent heading commercialization of the lollipop machine.
Chupa Chups S.A. is a Spanish confectionery company founded in 1958 by Enric Bernat. Bernat researched the fact that 2/3 of all candy was consumed by children under the age of 16. Those children were getting messy and their parents were having a difficult time giving them candy. Bernat created a universal treat comparable to, "eating a sweet with a fork." Bernat expanded his organization internationally throughout the 1970's with great success. By 2001 Bernat had taken Chupa Chups to some 125 countries!.
Two partners in Calaf, a small town outside of Barcelona, founded Discapa in 1992. The company was established to manufacture and sell vending machines.