Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

SWEET MAGIC – Bulgaria 03/03/2014

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:20 AM
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This is a Dutch company based in Bulgaria. I thank Mr Hans Boom and Ms Daniela Savova for their time and explanations during the Fair.

They are really specialists on cotton candy, but what is of our interest in this web-site is the cotton gum. There not so many companies in the world producing this speciality, and some of them do it as a “side product”, so it is always nice to find someone that really focuses on this. I invite you to visit their website: http://www.sweetmagic.eu and see their products here:

Cotton gum cotton gum2 cotton gum display

 

OAK LEAF – Canada 27/02/2014

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:13 PM
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This Canadian company, which belongs to the Sweetworks group, is a real specialist in gum balls. They supply any type of hollow ball you can imagine. The ones that caught my eye in the show were the balls with metallic-like coating. Their shine is really special, and the perfection level at which they are produced is really outstanding. There are, of course, other types of hollow balls (filled, printed, extra-sour,..) which you can find in their web-site:

www.sweetworks.net/tag/gum

but I cannot refrain from attaching some pictures here:

OAK LEAF-Sour-Mega-Eggs-Powder-Filled OAK LEAF-Shimmer-Lime-Green-1in-Gumballs-156x164 OAK LEAF-Shimmer-Yellow-Gumballs-156x164 OAK LEAF-Shimmer-Silver-Gumballs-156x164 OAK LEAF Spooky-Eyes-Group-156x164 OAK LEAF-Bubble-King-Assorted-156x164 OAK LEAF-8oz-Shimmer-Blue-Gumballs-Peg-Bag-Copy-156x164

 

I thank Mr Mauricio Bobadilla for the time he spent with me and the explanations.

 

 

Magnetic gum packaging 23/05/2013

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:36 AM
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I am not talking much about packaging. I regret this because it is one of the most important features in a chewing gum. It is the “dress” that presents it to the final consumer, so it says a lot about the positioning of the product, its characteristics, the type of user to whom it is addressed, etc. Not to mention the more technical aspects in which packaging is involved, like effects on the shelf life…

There are innovations in packaging, like there are in flavours, in sweeteners, in process machinery or in any other aspect of chewing gum. New forms of packaging are designed to protect the product and to present it in the most appealing way to the consumer. Let’s take for example one of the latest: ID Gum launched by Mondelez not too long ago. This packaging contains magnetic elements that allow to be re-closed as many times as needed. It is the first time that this feature is applied to chewing gum so it deserves full consideration.

You can see more in this link from AIPIA (Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association)

 

Chewing gum against common cold. 20/05/2013

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:47 PM
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Confectionerynews.com informs about a new gum designed by the Danish company Fertin which claims to enhance immunity and so preventing common cold.

The gum contains:

30mg of vitamin C

3,3 mg zinc

13,56 mg Echinacea

The first two ingredients have claims for immunity accepted by European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), but not the last one.

Fertin is the leading company worldwide in functional and pharmaceutical gum. They are fully specialized in this attractive niche market since many years and have done a lot of research and patents. In this case, this product is presented in the dry version, this is tabletted (compressed) gum instead of the extruded way. Tabletting gum has certain advantages (lower processing temperature, no interaction with water, etc.) versus the more traditional production method via extrusion. In general this is the most viable way for many functional gums because the tableting process is less aggressive to the sometimes fragile active ingredient.

Those of you that have been reading my web for a while know that I have a special interest on any functional gum that appears on the market and any research around that. So i am happy each time I can share one of these with you. You can read the article in this link

 

ICGA 13/05/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product,Production & Machinery,Research — Joan Mestres @ 3:57 PM
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Today just a quick post to give you the link to the International Chewing Gum Association (ICGA).

This association comprises the main chewing gum manufacturers worldwide and also some gum base suppliers. It was generated in 2005 by the merger of the European and the North American associations. The web site contains some information about chewing gum (History, Fun facts, FAQs,…) which may be of your interest.

 

GUM BASE Co. – Italy 03/05/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:12 PM

In ISM I met not only producers of chewing gum, also some suppliers were exhibiting there. Some days ago I talked about Beneo. Today about this italian company specialized in the production of gum base: Gum Base Co.

The company is part of Perfetti SpA and based near Milan, although they have production facilities also in Shanghai-China. Gum Base Co employs about 150 people and was founded back in 1967. I thank Mr Michel Benz for his time and explanations during the fair. The company is now noticing the interest on gum base to produce one of the latest trends in the industry: The gum tab consisting on two layers of chewing gum combined with a central layer of chewy candy. Gum Base Co. offers specific gum bases for this application. Mr Benz also explains that the liquid center filled gum is also in demand (although this has been around for much longer time). This type of gum requires some expertise and a perfect fine tuning of the ingredients and the machinery used in production. He notices a trend towards higher quality products, with higher profile. In the future the trend goes in the direction of healthcare/functional gum.

Gum Base Co also offers since some years PHARMAGUM (a gum in powder form designed for the pharmaceutical industry which can be directly compressible) and WELLGUM which is a specific solution that combines gum in powder form with active ingredients and then compressed into chewing gum (CPG – Compressed Powder Gum)

You can read more about this and other products and details of the company in their website: www.gumbase.com

 

Chewing gum (non producers) 12/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:23 AM
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In ISM I met not only many companies producing and selling their chewing gums, but also some others that are only taking care of the commercial part, and leaving the production to others.

Of course the number of the producers in the fair are much higher than the number of these commercializing companies, but I’d like to mention at least three here:

– BLINK.

This Danish company combines confectionery with fashion. They are experts in mints but they also have now a Gum version. Their packaging is really outstanding: Tin boxes with incredible designs which give a premium look to the product. Their BlinkGum comes in three different flavors and the gum itself is a two-layer compressed piece. So, in this case, not only the packaging is unique, but the product inside is exceptional. This is the link to their web: blink

– KERRY GUM

German company selling gum (coated dragees filled with liquid) in many different interesting packagings. Design is also in their focus. The plastic bottles are their strong point and they are modifying them to adapt to different circumstances. Like the football, basketball or tennis versions, or the one with a lanyard.:

GumBox_KerryGum_Fussball_mGumBox_KerryGum_-Basketball_m GumBox_KerryGum_Tennis_mGumPocket_KerryGum_Lanyard_m

They also have blister presentations. One of the versions (which I did not find in their website but was presented in ISM) was Keery Gum Energy, which claims to contain Caffeine, Guarana and Taurin. This the link to their website (only in German): Kerry gum

-MAXX SWEETS

German company commercializing chewing gum dragees in different presentations. I am sorry, I could not find their web site.

 

LOTTE – Korea / Japan 05/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 1:53 PM
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Today’s turn for one of the big names in the chewing gum industry: LOTTE

This huge group has even an entry in Wikipedia! They have many branches in different industries (electronics, tourism, publishing, building, finance, retail, …) but chewing gum was in the origin of the company back in 1948. Other food products in their range are: Drinks, Fast Food and Ice creams.

Lotte is producing chewing gum in many different factories, most of them in Asia, but I’d like to focus here on the new products presented last ISM by their headquarters:

Lotte Korea presented “Tri VIEW”. This is a tab (or ministick) with three different layers (this format is very trendy now in the market). The top and bottom layers are chewing gum whilst the middle layer is chewy candy. This allows for great flavour combinations, not only in terms of taste but also in terms of impact and lasting. I attach a photo taken with my iPhone (so I apologize for the “sub-optimal” quality!)

IMG_1918

Lotte Japan introduced two products. I discussed on a previous post about “ZEUS” (28th Aug 2012). This is also a three layer tab (or ministick) with the same concept as Tri VIEW and some others (discussed in the post I mentioned). ZEUS GUM comes in different flavors with “sexy” names: Aurora curtain, Snow storm, Thunder spark, Rain shower,…

Another product is “ENGINE”, which comes in cubic format with a slight coating and presented in a flip top box. There are different versions of the product, such as X-TRA SPEED, X-TRA WILD and X-TRA BURST and the product contains caffeine and guarana, so fall perfectly into the category of functional gum. The cubic presentation is also interesting because it is not very common in the market.

 

lotte xtra speedlotte engine open

 

zeus 2zeus 3zeus 4

 

 

 

FLEER – Spain 03/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 6:15 PM
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The company FLEER ESPAÑOLA SA is a joint venture between Tootsie Roll and the Torrents family.

Dr Torrents (a pharmacist) entered the world of chewing gum back in 1960 when he developed a gum against motion sickness. You can read the history and more in their web-site www.fleer.es

The company is based near Barcelona and employs about 90 people. I thank Mr José Ramon Navarro for his time and explanation during ISM.

In fact, FLEER has very innovative and interesting products. Their main brand is CLIX (sugarfree gum  in dragee and tab presentation). New in ISM was the “JOYSTICK”, a stick in individual flow pack which comes under the CLIX brand umbrella. This presentation is not very common, so worth checking. Other branches of the CLIX brand are “CLIX 3D” or “6 CLIX STICK GUM” (a sleeve with 6 sticks inside).

Other brands are DUBLOOM (sugared bubble gum filled with liquid) and DUBU (melons and other shapes. I always found very nice the one that comes with the shape of a bear!). Of course, we also find the famous “DUBBLE BUBBLE”, a heritage from the original FLEER, in USA.

3D-Clix-Joystick-Menta-Azul_thumb                                               clix3d                                                    dubloom

 

LUTTI – France 02/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:30 PM
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Today a French company: LUTTI. This company is specialist in other products than gum. They make hard and soft candy, jellies, marshmallow and chocolate. They employ about 500 people and have two factory locations, one in France (near Lille) and one in Belgium. Nowadays it is owned by KATJES, a German company, since 2009. LUTTI was founded in 1889 (!) so it is probably one of the oldest companies that I comment in this web.

Even if chewing gum might not be the core business of Lutti, they have some very special and interesting products: Gum in tube, roll up (tape gum) and spaghetti gum. All of them are bubble gum type and really out of the most common cut & wrap or hollow balls (which are the most common presentations for bubble gum). This is what makes LUTTI so special.

The novelties in ISM were a tube gum (branded as “TUBBLE COLOR”) that paints the tongue of the user in blue. Honestly, I’ve seen in the past bubble gums that leave a blue tongue, but not recently! So, once more, LUTTI adventures into a field which is outside the standard.

They also launched “BUBBLE PARTY”, which is an assortment of products.

I thank Mme Sylvie Foucart for her time and explanations during the Fair

Tubble ColorBUBBLE-PARTY