Who invented Sugus? The story of a generation's favorite candy

A boy boards a bus and stops in front of the driver, who extends his hand. Nervously, he frantically searches his pockets: he finds no coins, only a handful of candies. He opens his fist and shows it to them. "I only have Sugus," he says sadly. The driver looks at him for a second, considers the offer, and declares: "Well, I'll pay you with Sugus!" When the boy sits down, the other passengers rush to see if they can get some too. This was the premise of one of the black and white commercials that Spanish Television broadcast in the late 1970s. Back then, Sugus were one of the most popular candies in candy stores. They weren't hard, but they weren't chewing gum either; they didn't break or crunch, but rather softened slowly; they could be chewed or licked until they dissolved. But what made them especially recognizable was their perfect cube shape and the color system that allowed you to identify their flavor without having to read anything.

Today, Sugus is still sold. In fact, the brand is part of the Mars Group's catalog, one of the world's confectionery giants. The company, which also owns Twix chocolate bars and the famous M&M's, has a turnover of around 47 billion euros worldwide each year. However, Sugus wasn't born within this confectionery empire. snacks And the sweets: their roots can be traced back almost a century to 1931 in Switzerland.

The origin of the square candy

The story of Sugus doesn't begin in a candy store, but in the offices of a Swiss chocolate factory: Suchard. The company, now known especially for its chocolate nougat, was looking for a different product. Founded at the beginning of the 19th century and already one of the biggest names in European cocoa, the company had been making its living from chocolate for over a hundred years, but the market was beginning to show signs of saturation, and the company's management didn't want to get caught out. The man in charge of pulling the strings was Hans-Conrad Lichti, the company's CEO. Lichti embarked on a journey through Europe in search of a different product, one capable of opening a new path in the confectionery industry. He made his discovery far from Switzerland, in Krakow, where he unearthed an English recipe for a surprisingly soft, moldable candy that was almost unknown at the time.

It wasn't a candy to break with your teeth, but a sweet designed to be sucked, to soften little by little in the mouth until it melted. That texture, radically new at a time dominated by hard candies, convinced Lichti: he had found the product he was looking for. Suchard acquired the patent and began working industrially with a base of sugar, syrups, fats, and special gums, to which he added fruit juices to create different flavors.

The success of the colors

From the very beginning, Suchard understood that this new candy had to be different not only on the inside, but also on the outside. The solution was as simple as it was effective: each flavor would have its own color. There would be no need to read anything; simply looking at it would suffice. In an era when many candies looked alike, Sugus opted for a clear and immediate visual language.

World War II slowed its expansion, but it didn't stop it. When Europe began to recover, these small, colorful cubes were ready to leave Switzerland and begin a long journey. Starting in the 1950s, Suchard deployed an expansion strategy based on subsidiaries and production licenses. The square candies began to be manufactured in different parts of Europe and, gradually, on other continents. Argentina, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, and South Africa were some of the first destinations for a product that was no longer dependent on a single market. The color system, the consistent size, and the soft texture facilitated something key: ensuring that Sugus were exactly the same everywhere.

In Spain, Sugus began production in 1961, when Suchard opened a factory in San Sebastián and, later, another in Oviedo. They operated until 1988, when production moved to Argentina. Over the years, Sugus changed hands several times: in 1990, Suchard was acquired by the American group Kraft Foods. In 2004, Wrigley bought Kraft's entire candy business. In 2008, Wrigley was acquired by the Mars group in one of the largest transactions in the sector.