Bye bye chupa chups

A black day for Catalan business. Chupa chups, the lollipop firm, is being sold by its owners, the Bernat family, to Italian-Dutch multinational Perfetti Van Melle (of mentos fame) for an estimated 400 million euros. That's a lot of lollies.

now you probably didnt know chupa chups were catalan but they are apparently the best known brand name to come from these parts.

But it is a sign of the times. Family owned businesses are very big here and I expect we will see more of these sales as 2nd and 3rd generations cash out to foreign companies eager to get hold of good brands.