Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Triki – Tunisia 18/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 5:01 PM
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Let me today talk about another regional leader. This is Confiserie TRIKI – Le Moulin, located in the city of Sfax, in Tunisia.

I talked with Mr Sami Triki during the fair and I thank him for his time. He explained that the company was founded in 1948, it has two factories and about 550 employees. Triki produces not only gum (50%) but also hard candy (25%) and Halwa (25%). There is no specific launching during this fair but Triki is presenting its well known brands FLORIDA and FLORIDENT. The former is a sugared chewing gum in stick and coated dragees format. The second is a sugar free chewing gum in dragees presentation which comes in plastic bottles and in flip top boxes.

According to Mr Triki, they see a move back towards the stick format. It is true that some years ago we saw a switch to the dragees from other formats like sticks or tabs. This seems to be somehow reversing. We have seen in the market as well recently many “tabs” or “ministicks”, so this should also be taken into consideration. According to Mr Triki there is always room for innovation in chewing gum, one option could be compressed gum, another is through the addition of ingredients that will bring value.

Triki also has bubble gum, under the brands BALLON (a cut & wrap), SUPER JUMBO (hollow balls) and MANGO (fruit shape filled with liquid or powder).

You can find more about this company in their web:  www.confiserie.gr-triki.com

The company Triki is also shareholder of B11B (Back to Basics) of which I will talk in a separate post.

 

Confiteca – Ecuador 15/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:34 PM
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Confiteca, with headquarters in Quito – Ecuador and factories in Ecuador, Colombia (Confitecol) and Peru (Confiperu), is a leader in the chewing gum market in his area.

The company was founded in 1963 and owned by the Chiriboga family. It has about 1250 employees at the moment. They cover a very wide range of products, which includes chewing gum, hard and soft candy, chocolate and toys. More details in www.confiteca.com . I thank Mr Isaac Almeida for the time spent presenting the range of products.

Also, the range of chewing gum brands is extensive: TUMIX and ARTIC (dragees), AGOGO (Hollow balls),KATABOOM (balls filled with liquid) and SUPER HIPER ACIDO (filled with acid powder).

In last ISM, Confiteca presented PLOP!!, a 5 units sugarfree  gum in multipack and individual flowpack presentations. also TUMIX Sugarfree with a new presentation: individual flow pack.

This follows the trend that we find in many countries, which is the move towards sugarfree products, healthier for the teeth and withy more added value, moving away from the low cost / low margin products.

This company has a product which I consider specially interesting. It is not a novelty but I think it is worth mentioning here, because there are not many products like this in the world. It is a cotton gum, named DR LOOK PELUKLOCA. As this is a delicate product and can be easily damaged during transport and storage, it is presented inside a plastic jar which protects it conveniently. Here a photo:

peluca-loca

 

Roelli Roelli Confectionery AG – Switzerland 14/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 1:54 PM
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This small family owned company based in St Gallen, offers a nice range of chewing gum, all of them sugar free.

The company was founded in 1997 and has about 10 employees at the moment. In their range they have not only chewing gum, but also hard and soft candy, jellies and some chocolate containing products. It is owned by the Roelli family. You can see more on their web site www.roelliroelli.ch

Their chewing gum brands are DOC’s, FREEZER, PIX and HUSTOL. They come in many different sorts of packaging (plastic bottles, blister, flip top box, and even zip-bag). Most of them are coated gum pillows, but also mini-stick (or tabs). HUSTOL are filled dragees. The novelty in this ISM has been ALPRAUSCH (herbal gum) with new flavors. This product was exhibited in the ISM New Product Showcase.

Mr Nico Studer took the time to explain me the whole product range, so I thank him for that.

alprausch roelliroelli

 

Lusiteca – Portugal 13/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:21 PM
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Let me talk today about Lusiteca, the only Portuguese-owned chewing gum manufacturer. I’ve visited many times this company located in Mem Martins, not far from Lisboa/Lisbon. The company started in 1968 and currently has about 200 employees. They produce not only chewing gum, but also hard and soft candy. You can find more at www.lusiteca.pt

The company changed their image and logo last 2012, undertaking a major re-branding which brings more color, life and imagination.

Lusiteca has a very strong brand in bubble gum: GORILA, which is complemented by SUPER GORILA. The bubble gum has a range of 8 flavours, and every year a new one is coming. This ISM they presented a “Vintage Edition” for the Gorila, in which they include pictures of WW2 airplanes. This collection was already launched in the 70s and now Lusiteca is re-launching it in response of many customer’s requests.

You can find about the brand also in Facebook.com/pastilhasgorila

At the fair I talked to Mr Francisco Ramos, Ms Isabel Madeira and Ms Adelaide Chefe. I thank them all for their time and kindness.

Image

 

Batook – Saudi Arabia 12/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 5:16 PM
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I will start today the review of novelties in ISM talking about Batook. www.batook.com

This is a company in Dammam – Saudi Arabia, which is a reference in the Middle East. It was founded in the early 80s and it is a family owned company (Mr Batook himself) with more than 500 employees.

The produce chewing gum under their own brands and also for private label. The formats are sticks and coated pillows, both sugar and sugar free.

The classic brands in Batook are BIG KISS, NOVA and KLAST. It is under the KLAST brand that they present the new launches this ISM. KLAST is a premium sugar free product that comes in 4 different flavours.

This follows the trend of expansion that the company is facing, especially in the sugarfree segment.

I thank you Mr Ali Hussein El-Bar for his time with me during the fair.

 

ISM novelties 07/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:53 AM
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Hello,

Back from ISM and recovering.

During the show I tried to gather all the novelties in the chewing gum field. I interviewed many companies and they have been glad to inform me about their product launches.

I will be posting during next days about all those companies and products. I hope you find it interesting!

 

ISM and New Products 24/01/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:13 PM
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ISM ‘ 13 is getting close and next Sunday I will be flying to Cologne to attend the full fair, until Wednesday.

I look forward to meet many of my friends and business partners there, as every year.

I plan to post about the new products I will find in ISM, so you will find them all here.

The start the round of new launches, there is one from the argentinian company ARCOR (that will not be exhibiting in ISM) but that has arrived to me via confectionerynews.com Top Line gel

It is a sugarfree chewing gum under the brand “Top Line”, the main brand of the company in the chewing gum area, which contains a gel. The company uses this gel to deliver different flavour combinations.

topline7gel-02

The launch has been supported by a marketing campaign that includes videos in youtube like the ones in the next links: video top line gel, video top line gel 2 ; also in facebook and in the own website of the product.

To be continued after ISM….. Hope to find interesting novelties!

 

Trident 40 minutes 22/01/2013

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:52 PM
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I’d like to show you this product recently launched in Spain .

The lasting of the flavour in the chewing gum has always been one of the critical issues in the industry. However, this is the first time that I see a chewing gum that mentions specifically a precise time of lastingness (freshness in this case).

The same concept has been launched under the brands HOLLYWOOD and STIMOROL in other countries. I must admit that the promise is brave! The packaging is also interesting: A carton box with a sleeve that opens and the single units can be dosified through a hole. The units are coated chewing gums with a powdery layer outside and a district center. The whole product is full of coloured spots. For the time being I’ve found it with spearmint and with peppermint flavors. Each box contains 10 pieces. The launch has been supported by a strong marketing campaign including TV and facebook.

trident 40 min

 

First anniversary 20/01/2013

Filed under: Uncategorized — Joan Mestres @ 1:11 PM

Exactly one year ago I started this blog. Since then many people visited it, some are following it, some other commented… I thank you all for the support. As you can see my intention is to bring to you news and info about the chewing gum industry. Today, I’d like to ask you, reader of this blog, to tell me if there is anything you would like to see posted here, any subject that I am missing or you would like to see enhanced. You can post your comment to this popst or you can write to my e-mail: joanmestres@hotmail.com
Thanks again and hope to have been useful and interesting to you. I will keep posting about chewing gum!

 

Wrigley and Mondelez Marketing 10/01/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 7:12 PM
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Today… a note about marketing.

Two articles by Oliver Nieburg in Confectionerynews.com (see links below).

One article for each of the chewing gum giants.

The one dealing about Mondelez, informs about the intention to enhance the use of new technologies for their marketing, in particular mobile technologies by partnering with start-up companies in the field. For instance, Trident is linked to Rockimity and Stride to Waze. Interesting move!

Mondelez marketing

The second article is about Wrigley and their intention to reinvigorate the impulse channels in Germany. This is a more classical approach to marketing, which is also valid. Interesting to see it in a market (Germany) where Wrigley has a strong dominant position (over 70% market share according to Euromonitor). Other players (local brand Hitschler or the italian Perfetti) have a far much smaller share (below 5%). This market, due to its size and importance, is very carefully taken care of by Wrigley. There are line extensions being launched continuously (for the most classical brands like Orbit or Extra) and also new products being launched in a powerful way (such as “5” in 2009). Also, of course, being a well-developed mature market, the functionality vector is important, and Wrigley launched gums with green tea, aloe vera, vitamin C “Extra Professional + Vitamin C”. In terms of flavors, also according to Euromonitor, Spearmint is still number one, but new combinations appear more and more, like mojito, daiquiri or Pina colada flavour extensions for “Orbit”.

However, according to Mr Gabel (Sales director Wrigley Germany) their sales declined 3% last year, mainly driven by the decline in impulse channels, and that’s why they implement new measures now which include increasing sales force, new displays, increased TV marketing budget, etc.

Wrigley marketing