Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Nostalgia 01/10/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 6:15 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Now that we have to name the second player in our field “Mondelez” instead of Kraft, there many names that come to my mind which are no longer in use.

The same company, Kraft, took over some years ago Cadbury, which in turn had purchased Adams from Pfizer. Adams, a pioneer in our industry, was belonging to Warner Lambert. Cadbury also absorbed the Danish Dandy, the Argentinian Stani, the Egyptian BimBim and many others.

The other big player, Wrigley, is now within the Mars Inc. group, but it had absorbed some companies in the past, like Joyco (previously named General de Confiteria).

If we llok at the suppliers, we can also find names that are not there anymore. In the field of flavours I remember Bush Boake Allen (BBA), now in IFF; or Quest and Tastemaker now in Givaudan. In terms of machinery we can remember that names of Togum, Comeck or WLS. Many of their machines are still in factories around the world. Or even Nagema, from East Germany, for packaging.

If you also remember those names, it means that you have been around for quite a while as well….

 

Next lectures 24/09/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product,Production & Machinery,Research — Joan Mestres @ 9:06 PM
Tags: , ,

During next weeks I will be giving presentations about Chewing gum technology in two well-recognized organizations.

The first will be ZDS, in Solingen/Germany, on 29th October. They have a four-week long Sugar Confectionery Course dealing with all what is around technologies in this field (candy, jelly, marshmallow, coating, …) and I will be glad to discuss for eight hours with the participants about different aspects of chewing gum. Participants come from all around the world. You can find out more in http://www.zds-solingen.de

The second one will be in Leatherhead, United Kingdom, on 8th November. Here there is also a Sugar Confectionery Course and I will take care of the chewing gum presentation. The web is http://www.leatherheadfood.com

I have been lecturing in both places for more than 10 years and I must say that it is one of the most enjoyable moments of the year for me. I always find interesting to exchange ideas and experiences with other people

 

Sweet Tec – ZDS 22/09/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:08 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Just back from Lindau – Germany, where I attended this year’s edition of Sweet Tec, organized by ZDS. Interesting presentations about coating and all what is around it (ingredients, technology, …) Not necessarily about chewing gum, but also. For me it was special because, after many years (since 1998 if i remember well) giving lectures in ZDS, this is the fist time that I talk about something which is not chewing gum. This time was about chewy candy technology, which of course has some points in common with chewing gum but it has also its specificities.
Besides the usual companies attending these seminars (Capol, Danisco -now DuPont-, Chocotech, Beneo-Palatinit, Roquette, AZO, Munters…) I found specially important to note the presence (with booth) of two companies offering Stevia. One of them is Cargill, the other is NP Sweet A/S. While the first is well-known, I was not aware of the second, which is a joint-venture between Nordzucker and PureCircle. This follows, and reinforces the trend of this new ingredient, at least in Europe (I posted something about it already in this blog). However, no chewing gum has been launched in the market yet. I could chew samples (lab scale) and they were very nice, so I’m sure we will see some chewing gum with Stevia in the near future.

 

Do PIIGS chew gum? 12/09/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 8:49 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today I had the curiosity to check the Euromonitor figures for these European countries that suffer the current crisis in its most severe form. I’d like to share some of them with you (from smallest size market to largest). The data are from 2011.

PORTUGAL: 1318 Tons. Up 1% in value from 2010 but expected to stay at 0% growth until 2016 (the maximum range of Euromonitor’s study). The main brand is Trident and the market is largely dominated by Cadbury (63%), followed at distance by Wrigley (13%) and the local producer Lusiteca (4%).

IRELAND: 2130 T. Up 2% both in value and volume from 2010. Expected growth of 1% per year until 2016. The top brand is Extra and in this case the market is clearly dominated by Wrigley (86%), with some minor shares for Cadbury (3%), Zed Candy (1%), Tesco (0,6%), Adams (0,5%) and Topps (0,1%). A special note about the products from Zed Candy, which are very original and shocking.

GREECE: 3025 T. Down 9% in volume from 2010 and a decrease of 3% is expected in the studied period. Here the main brand is Trident and the market leader Cadbury with 59%. Then we find Wrigley (20%), Perfetti (13%), Elma SA (5,4%) and Sarsantis with 0,9%. This is clearly the country where we find the worse results, and it is as well where the economic situation seems to be the worse.

SPAIN: 13038 Ton in 2011 with 2% decrease in volume and value. However the expectations are more positive with a growth of 2%. Number one brand is Trident and here there is a tight fight for the largest market share, being Cadbury (43%) and Wrigley (42%). Then we find Perfetti (4,2%) and local producers such as Fleer (2,2%) and Damel (0,1%).

ITALY: with 18322 T is the largest market and one traditionally dominated by the local multinational Perffetti (94% market share!). Not much room left for the others, with only Wrigley accounting for a 2,3%. Number one brand is, of course, a Perfetti one: Vivident. The market has grown 2% in volume since 2010 and a small 1% growth is expected from now on.

We do not find many similarities, as each country has its own players, trends and dynamics. The only common trend that I found is also found in many other developed markets, which is the increase of sugarfree and functional products, that are keeping the market alive, in opposition to bubble gum and sugared gum which decreases more and more its presence. We can also look at the trend of smaller packages (which I discussed in a previous posting) and also some differences noticed at the point of sale, regarding the consideration of gum as impulse product.

 

Chewing Gum and Chewy Candy Combination 22/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:02 PM
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

The last trend launched into the market in terms of chewing gum format or presentation has been a co-extruded tab consisting on 3 layers of product. Kraft-Cadbury was the first to come with this innovation and named it “Trident Layers”. This is a sort of “sandwich” gum where the top and bottom layers are gum, and the middle layer is chewy candy with a different flavor. Really interesting mix! Then, the same company has launched the same concept under other brands that they own. For instance “Stride” in Japan and “Beldent” in Argentina. Other companies launched a similar product: Perfetti with the well-known “Mentos” brand and also “Vivident”. In this case, this company dared to go for three completely different layers, as you can see in the photo attached, each one with a different color and/or flavour. Recently Lotte, in Japan, joined the trend and launched “Zeus” gum. In this case they used a completely new brand and did not use any existing one (“BlackBlack”, “Xylitol”, “Green Gum”, etc…). “Zeus” gum has a really strong taste (the image on the packaging refers to a storm and lightning), whicb is quite unusual for the Japanese market, which usually prefers mild flavors. Let’s see how it performs in the market.

We will probably see other products in the market that use this innovative concept of mixing gum and chewy candy. And of course, this opens the door to other combinations…

r

 

“New” product – Marijuana 20/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:10 PM
Tags: , , ,

I received an article informing about a new chewing gum in the US. This time, the novelty that is announced is the active ingredient: Marijuana. According to the article it will be marketed Over-The-Counter, claiming health benefits.
What is more arguable is the declaration that this will be “the first cannabinoid based chewing gum to hit the market”… I have samples, bought in Amsterdam about 10 years ago that claim to contain marihuana as well. Of course, I have not analyzed to confirm if the claim is true, but in this case this “new” US product will not be the first one to be launched.

In any case, this development falls in the category of “functional gum”, added-value product, which tries to offer added benefits to the consumer.We find many launchings in this direction every year, which is a clear confirmation of this market trend.

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Markets/Medical-marijuana-chewing-gum-set-for-US-debut

 

 

 

 

Market data 13/08/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 3:15 PM
Tags: , ,

A new report from Kantar Media shows that Iran and Saudi Arabia are the countries with the highest consumption of chewing gum. Important to note that the report does not mention consumption per capita but, instead, percentage of the population that chew gum.

Although the two big world-wide players (Wrigley and Cadbury) are present in these markets, there is also a wide range of local producers, specially in Iran. Leading local production in Saudi Arabia is Batook, while in Iran we find Pars Minoo, Shirin Asal, Parastoo and up to more than 10 producers of chewing gum.

You can find this news published by Confectionerynews.com in the following link.

http://www.confectionerynews.com/Markets/Highest-chewing-gum-consumption-worldwide-revealed/?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Newsletter%2BDaily&c=0%2FaKxp4dYMVtgIzL0Z0RNHoV9wTg41mZ

and the original here:

http://www.kantarmediauk.com/news–resources/press-releases/more-gum-chewed-in-the-middle-east-than-the-usa.aspx

 

New Product, more!

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:49 PM
Tags: , , , , ,

Some days ago I was mentioning an interesting product from Wrigley in Australia. Today it is Cadbury’s turn, and they have a new product in the US named “ID“. This gum, targeted to teenagers has two main characteristics: The first is a printed surface with different designs (there are some products in the market with this feature but none of them has been launched recently). The second interesting characteristic is a packaging with a magnet in the sleeve so it can be properly closed.

I attach below a link where you can read more about this product:

http://www.just-food.com/news/kraft-looks-to-boost-gum-sales-with-new-brand_id119104.aspx

and this one that discusses about this product and some other novelties in the chewing gum market:

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-05-04/wacky-chewing-gum/54818846/1

 

 

New Product from Australia 11/08/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:20 PM
Tags: , ,

The other day I came across this interesting product from Wrigley Australia. They are the classical gum tabs in a multipack, but what is interesting are the two stripes placed on the top of the piece. It seems to be a coextruded product but in this case they are not blending two types of gum with different flavours or colors (which is the most typical case when coextruding) but they are using instead these two stripes of powder. It comes under the umbrella of “EXTRA” brand and there is a different flavour range. I tasted the powder and it does not seem to me to contain xylitol (no big cooling effect), so I think that it might be some isomalt with some flavor (?), just a guess. I do not know how long this has been in the market for, so it might not be a really new product, but in any case for sure it is worth mentioning.

 

Gum base market data and Pharmaceutical Gum 17/07/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:29 PM
Tags: , , , ,

Today I’d like to share with you some interesting figures about the gum base market and also data about where the chewing gum is produced. Instead of giving you here the figures, I prefer to refer you to the web-site of Cafosa, a leading gum base producer and supplier, which is where I found them.
Following the link below you will find those data and also some information about pharmaceutical chewing gum, including a webinar that took place some time ago.
I think it is really worth to have a look at it.

www.cafosa.com/ArchivedNewsletters/July_2012_185/index.htm

In other parts of the website you will other interesting information about other aspects of gum bases.