Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Fleer – Spain 04/04/2024

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 10:17 AM
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I already talked about this company (founded Spanish but now under the American Tootsie Roll) in this blog.

What I find interesting is the broad range of products that they cover:

  • Chewing gum dragees under the brand CLIX. 12 flavours. Presented in individual flow packs and also in zipbags with 30 pieces each
  • Chewing gum sticks: 4 flavours, also under the brand CLIX
  • Functional chewing gum, CLIX PRO with vitamins and ginseng
  • Bubble gum chunks (cut&wrap) under the brand DUBBLE BUBBLE, one of the historical brands in the chewing gum industry. There is one side brand which is sugrafree, quite unusual for a bubble gum for children. Another line extension offers the pieces in the shape of a bear and still another is a tongue painter.
  • Bubble gum balls and melons

So this covers different formats, flavours and target markets.

They also launched a line of Cotton candy (“FLUFFY STUFF”), which is not gum but this could be a new development for the future, although the production of cotton candy gum is a real challenge!

www.fleer.es

 

Per Os Biosciences – USA 26/03/2024

Filed under: General,New product,Production & Machinery,Research — Joan Mestres @ 6:56 PM
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By large, most of the chewing gum produced in the world uses a “wet” formulation and the process involves an extrusion. However, there are alternatives to this and today I’d like to talk about a company in the US that excels in the tabletted gum process. PerOs Biosciences produces functional gum using a patented process which differs from other tabletting processes. For example, it does not require a double layer and besides, they claim that the percentage of active ingredient can be larger versus other similar processes. This tabletting involves compressing the gum powder in a tablet press. It is a “dry” formulation, as the ingredients are all (or a huge majority) in powder form. This is specially interesting when the active that has to be added is sensitive to temperature. The whole process is carried out at room temperature (or at least there is no significant heating as in the extrusion), so very convenient when the active can be damaged by heat.

The company has some success cases, collaborations and studies with different entities. Maybe an interesting one is the one related to an anti-viral chewing gum ( so, it might prevent Covid19) carried out together with the University of Pennsylvania.

As not many companies in the world are proficient in tabletting chewing gum, this is one that has to be considered, for sure.

 

BARKLEYS GUM – TUTTLE & CO 04/03/2024

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 6:29 PM
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As usual each ISM is a source of interesting products and a learning experience. This time I picked up the product from Barkleys, which is marketed highlighting its intensity. This feature and the unique packaging are the differential elements of this brand. It comes in tins, which is not a usual packaging for gum. The reason is that the origin of the company (Tuttle & Co) and still today the main product are the mints, which are presented, of course, in metal tins. That’s also the reason for the claim of “intense gum”, which is perfectly aligned with the mints (sugar, sugarfee and chocolate filled). The gum is a line extension and presents 3 different flavours: Peppermint, Spearmint and Cinnamon. The tins contain 30g (ca.22 pieces) of dragée gum, which is much more than a standard blister pack.

I leave you here the websites, so you can see these products

https://barkleysgum.com/#

https://www.tuttleandcompany.com/

 

Innovation in Chewing gum 02/08/2023

Filed under: General — Joan Mestres @ 9:29 AM
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I found this article in the Spanish magazine SweetPress/DulcesNoticias which discusses a very critical point in our industry: How we innovate, how we offer products that can be of interest to the consumer, how we evolve and adapt to the new trends and tastes. The articles includes the point of view of the main chewing gum companies in the Spanish market, such as Mondelez, Vidal, Chupa Chups (Perfetti), Wrigley/Mars, Fleer, Fini, etc… The options include flavours, packaging, functionality, promotional campaigns and also the use of brands (Trex, BangBang) used by General de Confiteria / Joyco in the past.

The Spanish chewing gum market is recovering fast after the Covid19 period. The article reports a 23,3% increase in volume (although it is not clear to me in which period).

Interestingly, there is no reference to natural gum, which is almost inexistent in the Spanish market in spite of being a strong trend in other European countries.

 

Ferrero – Ferrara – Dori alimentos 26/07/2023

Filed under: Mergers & Acquisitions — Joan Mestres @ 12:59 PM
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Yesterday the American company Ferrara announced the acquisition of the Brazilian Dori alimentos. The deal is expected to be closed by the end of the year.

Ferrara, part of the Ferrero Group since 2017, is a large player in the confectionery field (mainly with gummies and chews) and this acquisition will allow the company to enter the Brazilian market , as reported in several articles. Here you have a link to one of them: www.just-food.com and it is also announced on Ferrara’s website

 

AB Natural Base SA – Mexico 29/06/2023

Filed under: General — Joan Mestres @ 12:43 PM
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I talked about this company in the past (see link) but they inform me that they have launched a redesigned website (in fact a few of them!) and I am pleased to mention it here, as the production of chewing gum using natural gum base is one of the main current trends in our industry. Still, the percentage of gum produced with this ingredient is very small compared to the main brands and companies using synthetic gum base, but more and more small companies jump into this idea. Please see these links for more info about this Mexican supplier:

Natural Gum base

Natural chicle

AB Natural Gum

AB Natural Base

 

SWEET VICTORY – Israel 25/05/2023

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:23 PM
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Today, quite an interesting claim for a chewing gum. Different that the ones we can usually find in our industry (more related to energy, concentration, …). The israeli company Sweet Victory launched a gum which claim to fight sugar craving. It contains an active ingredient from the plant “Gymnema Sylvestre”. This ingredient (molecule similar to glucose) blocks the sugar receptors in our tongue. This means that we cannot taste the sugar while the effect lasts (they claim 2 hours).

The claim and the mechanism is interesting. I cannot say by myself if this works, as I have not tasted the product.

It comes in different packaging (blister, platic bottle and flow pack) and flavours.

You can find much more information in their website www.sweetvictory-gum.com and also in this article from FoodNavigator Europe.

 

FLEER – Spain . Gum for E-Gamers. CLIX PRO 24/05/2023

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:34 PM
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Today another novelty seen in ISM. A gum specially designed and directed to E-gamers. This is a growing segment of the market and the company Fleer has identified it as such, and presents their CLIX Pro, containing different Vitamins and also Green Tea and Ginseng.

CLIX is their well-established brand for their chewing gum, after many years, so they use the same umbrella to launch this very special product. It comes in blister with 10 pieces of coated gum www.clixpro.es

 

MULTITRANCE – Netherlands. CBD Chewing gum 23/05/2023

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:11 PM
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The use of Cannabis, Hemp, CBD in food is a hot topic. I must admit that I get confused when I try to understand the different legislations, which change continuously in each EU country, UK, Australia, Canada, Latin America or each one of the States in the US. I think I will leave that to the experts and I will keep posting here (as I have been doing so far) the products that I find containing this controversial ingredient/s.

In this case from the Netherlands, where the company Multitrance offers a broad range of products, like the one in the photo below, that is presented in blister and contains 12 gum pieces with 17mg CBD in each. Interesting green spots on the coating of each piece, which makes it more appealing. You can find much more in their website www.multitrance.com

Not only they offer different items such as chocolate, gummies, candies, beer, muffins, etc. but also plenty of accessories.

 

Confiteca – Ecuador 22/05/2023

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:39 AM
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Not everything is functional gum! Although I like a lot the novelties is this segment, I also like to see new launches in the field of more traditional gum. There are not many, I must say, so when I find one it is very good news.

In this case the Ecuadorian company Confiteca presented in ISM an extra sour gum. The format is what is more interesting: A 20cm-long cylinder filled with liquid (in some cases) or powder (in another version). Each bar, or cylinder comes in a flowpack. The product has a soft nice chew and, of course, an extra sour taste. Named “Super Hiper Ácido” comes in different flavours (watermelon, maracuya, strawberry…)