Under the guise of pharmaceutical packaging, the Catalan company Happy Pills has managed to become a benchmark in the candy store segment, making careful design its cover letter and focusing sweets not only on children, but also on adults. The idea of entering this business segment, characterized by a little professionalization, emerged in 2007.
At that time there was no type of establishment that operated in this field and gave the candies the only leading role. Sweets were and still are in many cases, a compulsive purchase item that coexists in the same place with other stationery or press products and without certain hygiene conditions.
Entrepreneur Domingo Ojeda, who had had businesses in sectors as diverse as hair accessories with the La Peineta brand, decided to bet on this product independently. To do this, he was helped by professionals from the world of advertising and design, who helped create aseptic spaces, in which furniture, decoration, packaging and containers, due to their theme, remind one of an apothecary. His wife, Gloria, and his niece, Inma, are also involved in the project. Happy Pills does not produce the sweets, but buys them from national and international suppliers such as Haribo and Vidal and packages them in bottles that simulate medicine bottles, mini-medicine cabinets and pillboxes. “There is an emotional aspect in the purchase. Those pharmaceutical containers are medicines”, explains Imma Dueñas, creative director and niece of Domingo. She likes to call them happy pills, “because sugar gives you energy.”
Thus, the containers in which customers put the candies are accompanied by positive texts, which most of the time, help improve mood. There are some messages that call for curing lovesickness or minimizing work worries. The customer is the one who chooses the message that best suits her mood or that of the person she wants to surprise with one of these pills as a gift. Compared to traditional stores where each type of sweet has a different price, all sweets are worth the same and are not weighed independently.
The Happy Pills store concept is designed for small spaces, located in prime areas but also in shopping malls. Following this premise, its first Happy Pills store was opened on Calle Rec in Barcelona, a place with a large influx of tourists in the Catalan capital, close to the Cathedral.
The need to be present in spaces with high traffic is key, since it is a business with low average cash receipts. This project came together and since the launch of the first store, the company has managed to open another seven establishments, mainly located in the city of Barcelona. Its locations are both shopping centers (l’Illa Diagonal or Glòries in Barcelona) and at street level, on Rambla Catalunya in the Catalan capital. This last store also houses the company’s offices.
Zaragoza and Bilbao are other cities where they have taken their innovative concept of sweets for adults. All of them are their own centers. Madrid is another city that is included in their growth plans and they believe that sooner or later it will materialize, as well as Palma de Mallorca, a city that is also included in their plans. Although the founder of the company assures that they receive offers from investors interested in taking the Happy Pills to different national and European locations, they prefer to go little by little. “Openings require being prepared. We are a family business that has limited resources,” says the founder of the candy chain.
open borders
At the moment, the project with the most possibilities of being glimpsed is abroad and specifically, in South Korea. The company has already identified a local partner, who wants to open a Happy Pills space as a franchise in one of the most exclusive shopping centers in the Gangnam neighborhood of the capital, Seoul. If the project works in Korea, the purpose of its Korean partner is to open more than thirty, it would also be the first time that they dare with a Mater franchisor.
The creative director warns that one of the risks of internationalization is the difficulty in adapting the messages that are incorporated in the packaging to local languages and making some winks. “It is very difficult to export a sense of humor.” Another brake is the need to adapt to all the regulations on hygiene and labeling of the different markets. Among the locations that they believe would have more options to locate a Happy Pills store, are the large European capitals such as Paris or London. In addition, they assure that in the United States they have also detected potential investors, one of them with experience in Wal-Mart, with whom they would not rule out launching to conquer that market and even open in New York.
Far from following the same strategy as other Barcelona companies that make design their letter of introduction, Happy Pills has never relied on the Barcelona brand to make its way abroad despite having been born in Barcelona and having its largest area in the Catalan capital. of influence. As they admit, “many people do not know that we are a company from here.”
The company is working on a new computer system that allows them to more efficiently manage inventory and product replenishment in stores. They are also testing changes in the furniture, in the candy dispensers and have launched a 400 square meter logistics center in Badalona (Barcelona) to optimize the traceability of their product.
Corporate clients and new audiences
Another line of business that the company has opened is focused on the corporate channel. These are jars and recipes focused and personalized for the business segment, an activity that they perceive will increase.
The company sources product from both domestic and foreign product manufacturers. Among the products available in stores, there are also sugar-free or gluten-free sweets, to cover as many audiences as possible. Another of the challenges that he plans for the company is the possibility of marketing halal sweets, made according to the Muslim tradition, as well as kosher, focused on the Jewish public. However, they assure that it is difficult due to the fact of having to find manufacturers that produce this type of candy. The company does not offer data on its updated billing, but according to its latest public data, it billed 1.5 million euros in 2012, 7 percent more than the previous year.
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