*The 366 square foot ‘Happy Pills’ storefront at CF Carrefour Laval in suburban Montreal. Photo: fredglozman/Reddit*

By Mario Toneguzzi

Barcelona-based Happy Pills, a retailer of adult candy, has entered the Canadian market with its first store in suburban Montreal and the company says there is more to come.

“Regarding Canada, we are really excited with our local Master Franchise, and its first opening in CF Carrefour Laval shopping centre. We are receiving many contacts of people who love the idea to start their own business through our brand, and we are focusing all our efforts in developing the market faster, including B2B business,” said Daniel Muñoz, a spokesperson for the retailer, adding that the company is looking to expand to at least 20 stores in Canada.

“Our concept fits everywhere, a fun and delicious present for anyone.”

The company has its base in Spain but also operates a number of stores in South Korea and just recently also opened a new store in Boston.

*Happy Pills store circled in red. Click image for interactive CF Carrefour Laval mall floor plan*

“Happy Pills is a sweet and premium experiential concept based on regular and natural candies. We chase the idea to offer a new way to introduce candies to the market,” said Muñoz, of the brand which first started in 2007.

“We always wanted to do something with candies. At Spain in that moment, there was nothing interesting and we came up with the idea of selling sweets in a luxury way, designed to engage adults - not for kids.

“We had our first experience four years ago (in expansion), through a partner in South Korea, which is currently running eight stores. After learning all the difficulties of being international, we have started in Canada, Boston, Andorra, France and we are negotiating contracts in more than 10 countries to land the brand during 2020 and 2021,” added Muñoz.

He said the company is also starting a big development plan that would include shop-in-shop in department stores.

On its website, Happy Pills says it provides people with “sweet remedies” for daily pains.

“Choose a bottle, candy flavors, a label (or create your own) and in a few seconds you'll have the perfect recipe to fight against stress, blue Mondays or boring Sundays, heartbreaks, hangovers, the inescapable bore…Or to celebrate that it is finally Friday, that someone loves you, that it is sunny or that you just feel like it,” says the retailer.

It’s a concept with an adult target market.

“The retail experience, pricing and the sticker you need to choose and fix in the bottle to complete your purchase makes a unique and different concept of buying candies,” said Muñoz.

“Despite that, we have the Happy Kids concept with a specific fit out for them. Kids really appreciate to share with parents that moment and to discover this new idea of selling candies.”

“Talking about B2B, companies discover a new way to surprise their internal/external customer for events, parties, product presentation, etc. Finally, it is something sweet and funny to share with people.”

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com

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