Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Printed gum. Mondelez Patent 15/04/2013

Filed under: Production & Machinery — Joan Mestres @ 7:20 PM
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Mondelez has filed a patent related to a new system of printing gum. you see the link to the article in confectionerynews.com here and the link to the patent itself here

Printed gum has been around for decades. I remember “Fruit Stripes” by Wrigley…

fruit-stripe-gum

 

but the newest launch in this field has been “ID” from Mondelez, so this patent refers to this product. I presented this one on my post on 13th August 2012.

ID_Gum

 

There are also hollow balls in the market which are printed on the coated surface. Come to my mind the ones from Confiteca (Ecuador) named “agogo” and the one from Zed Gum (Ireland) which I discussed in my post about this company from last ISM.

 

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.

 

Chewing gum is good for your brain (true?) 10/04/2013

Filed under: Research — Joan Mestres @ 5:39 PM
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With all this review of companies in ISM and new products presented there, I almost forgot an article appeared on Confectionerynews.com on 5th February.

This article discusses about the studies that suggest that the action of chewing gum increases the blood flow into the brain and then increases the alertness or capacity of attention of the subject.as that study was carried out on 17 individuals, it seems that there is not enough grounds to establish a proper conclusion.

This is the link to the article: GUM and BRAIN

This is the link to the study itself: STUDY

And this is the link to my previous post discussing about the (bad) effect of gum on Short term memory: GUM MEMORY

My personal opinion is that all those studies are acceptable as starting point, but more research should be conducted before producing a final statement.

Your thoughts and comments are welcome!

 

JAKE – Spain 09/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 4:31 PM
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JAKE SA is located in the Murcia region, South East of Spain. It was founded in 1976 and owned nowadays by Mr Emilio Vicente. It employs over 100 people. You can learn more in their website:  www.jakesa.com

They produce many types of confectionery: Hard and soft candy, jellies, licorice and… of course, gum! They focus on kids products, around the concept of fun. They also stress the fact that many of their products are Gluten free.

Within the gum segment they are experts in balls (hollow or filled), melons, bottles and other round shapes. JAKE has also lollipop filled with gum. Some of the brands are FRUTI SPLASH (liquid filled balls presented in individual flow pack), SUPER GUM (lollipop with gum), BLUE/RED/GREEN EXPLOSION (filled balls which paint the tongue with color). The novelty of this last ISM was the brand MEGATRON which includes both a lollipop and a super sour ball presented in individual flow pack.

You can find the full catalogue clicking here

I thank Mr Antonio López for his time and explanations during ISM.

detalle-megtrón

 

Functional Gum in Mexico 08/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 3:15 PM
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More news about functional gum being published by http://www.confectionery news.com

Some days ago the focus was Holland and today is on Mexico.

In these two countries, like in many others, the growth of chewing gum is expected to be higher than the growth in other confectionery fields. and the main driver for that is the potential functionality that a chewing gum can contain. Of course the health claim is a key aspect in many markets and an issue that consumers value more and more. Then, of course, becomes a major issue for producers of chewing gums (and almost any other food product, I’d say).

The article also mentions that fruit flavours are the most popular in that country and gives some figures from Euromonitor about the market shares (with mention to one of the companies that I described some days ago: PISSA)

Again, good article from Oliver Nieburg of Confectionerynews.com!

Here is the link:

Functional gum in Mexico

 

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

 

 

 

Health claims in European chewing gums 04/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,Research — Joan Mestres @ 5:45 PM
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Today I send you the link to an article about the Health claims that are approved for a chewing gum by the European Union. The article mentions the mature Dutch market and says that functional claims are the way to keep a higher growth for the chewing gum compared to other confectionery products, but these functional chewing gums must keep a reasonable price.

It mentions the claims approved by EU, which include the use of ingredients such as carbamide, fluoride and xylitol.

Confectionery News functional Gum

 

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

 

PISSA – Mexico 27/03/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:19 PM
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The name of this company, PISSA, stands for Productos Industrializados del Saltillo, SA. It is located in the city of Saltillo, north of Mexico. The company is partly owned by Pepsico. They are specialists on compressed dextrose products (world leader in this field, they claim) but they also make excellent chewing and bubble gum products, mainly for third parties (private label). You see it in their website: www.pissacorp.com

I saw three very interesting products this past ISM. All of them non-common gums, which show the innovation and spirit of the company. Let’s see if I can describe them (with the help of some pictures that I took with my iPhone, so excuse the quality…)

– DUO POP is a tabletted dextrose lollipop. This is already a bit exceptional in itself, but the interesting feature is that it contains pieces of chewing gum embedded in the dextrose. One can see the particles because they have different color.

IMG_1892

 

– GUM ART: It is not just a product, but a concept in itself. Mr Carlos Palomino (thanks for your time!) explained the concept “Fun to play, easy to share”. So it this case we have a sheet of gum (16 gram!) with a design painted on it. This design can be adapted to licenses. Then we have a pencil filled with syrup, in such a way that the child can “paint” the gum layer with the syrup of the pen. Then can be eaten or shared with other friends. The perception resembles the feeling of a syrup filled bubble gum (because we have a liquid and a gum as well) but with the characteristic that it can be repeated several times with the same item.

IMG_1891

 

– TAPE GUM: This format of gum is not strange but it is not extremely common in the market. A few companies produce it. In this case PISSA differentiates because of the packaging. They use a themoformed blister that helps deliver the tape gum as we wish.

img03b

So, in summary, three very interesting products developed by PISSA.

Finally I wanted to mention as well a product that I did not see in their stand in ISM but I saw when I visited their facilities some time ago and that I found in their website. It is a gum with a printed design on top of it. This makes it quite particular as well. Here is a photo from the website (same as the one above for the tape gum) so copyrighted:

img10c