| Saint Hermanos S.A. | |
| Type: | Private |
| Industry: | Food |
| Predecessors: | --> |
| Founded: | 1880 in Buenos Aires |
| Founder: | Abel Saint |
| Fate: | Acquired by Grupo Arcor in 1993, became a brand |
| Successors: | --> |
| Hq Location City: | Buenos Aires |
| Hq Location Country: | Argentina |
| Areas Served: | --> |
| Products: | Chocolate |
| Owner: | Grupo Arcor (1993–pres.) |
| Brands: | Tofi |
Chocolate Aguila is an Argentine chocolate brand currently owned and commercialised by Grupo Arcor. "Aguila" was the tradename used by the former company Saint Hermanos S.A., which had been established in 1880, being renowned for its chocolate bars.
The company was acquired by Grupo Arcor in 1993, becoming a brand of it.
The company was established by French immigrant Abel François Charles Saint (1845–1892),[1] Named "Saint Hermanos", the company continued producing roasted coffee and also chocolate, which soon became favorite among Saint's clients.[1]
During the first half the XX century, the firm opened point sales along Argentina, even expanding its business to Uruguay (with a new plant built there) and Paraguay. By 1920, Aguila added ice cream to its portfolio under the brand "Laponia". The company also produced and marketed bonbons, chocolate pastilles, and mint confections among other goods.[2]
Between the 1930s and the 1970s, the former Chocolate Aguila company developed a huge variety of products, manufacturing and commercialising more than 100 different items in its factory located in Barracas.[3]
In the 1930s, the company hired famous cook Petrona de Gandulfo (popularly known as "Doña Petrona") to advertise its chocolate.[4] Gandulfo wrote a cook brochure with recipes using Aguila chocolate as main ingredient. Those recipes were then compiled in the anthology volume Doña Petrona Inédita that included more than 1,000 recipes written by Doña Petrona and remained unpublished until then.[5]
In the 1980s, the company broadcast a TV advertisement starring a black man that compared himself (in a humoristic tone) with a blonde hair boy when talking of his childhood, at the end of the piece. The advertisement would become a success and a classic of the brand.[6] Afro-Cuban pianist and actor Rigoberto Díaz de Armas was the actor that played that role. The advertisement has also gained some criticism from sectors who stated that comparing the African culture with chocolate may imply some form of racial stereotyping.[7]
, products under the Aguila brand include a wide range of chocolate-based products. Apart from its classic bar, Arcor commercialises chips, syrup, alfajores, bonbons, ice creams, and candies.