Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

ILHAM SWEETS – Turkey 31/05/2018

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 8:57 AM
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Turkey has great gum producers. Although some of the companies that existed in the past have disappeared (either taken over by a larger international group, or just closed down) there is still a huge production of all types of gum in the country. Also gum base is supplied by Turkish manufacturers.

ILHAM SWEETS (www.ilhamsweets.com)  is one of these chewing and bubble gum producers which covers a broad range of presentations and formats. From Bubble gum filled with fizzy powder or liquid, to gum balls with many different shapes and sugarfree chewing gum presented in blisters or in plastic bottles. The company covers many flavours (including extrem sour, cola, cinnamon,…) and funny shapes (like basketball, tennis balls, rugby, football, golf, …). I find specially interesting the gum balls coated with “pearl effect”.  I leave you some pictures.

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FINI – Spain 11/04/2014

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:30 AM
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Not really big novelties this year for this Spanish company, with branch in Brazil.

Last year I mentioned very nice gum balls resembling tennis balls. They were in yellow (tradition color for a real tennis ball) and pink. This year they expanded the range to orange, green and blue balls. Very nice! i like them.

tennis balls fini

 

VIDAL – Spain 18/03/2014

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 9:29 AM
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This company is launching one of the most interesting products I found in the Fair: gum footballs. They consist on engraved hollow balls with the design of a football (“soccer” if you read this from the US!). This is year of a World Championship (which takes place every 4 years) so there will be a lot of products around this issue. VIDAL is presenting these excellent gum balls.

I also found a “spaghetti gum” in pouches under the brand “BITS BUBBLE”. The pouch contains blue and fizzy noodles. You can find this on more in the company’s website: www.vidal.es

I thank Mr Javier Nieto for his explanations.

VIDAL FOOTBALLS_BOMBONERA_MEDIDAS-174X174-pixeles VIDAL BITSBUBBLE_MEDIDAS-174X174-pixeles

 

ZED CANDY – IRELAND 05/03/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 10:25 AM
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I had the chance to talk to Mr Brendan Roantree, Managing Director of Zed Candy, during ISM.

This Irish company was established in 1998 and has been growing and expanding since then. Now employes more than 270 people and has production facilities in China and in UK. Even if they produce hard and soft candy, chocolate and jelly beans, what is interesting to us is their production of bubble gum. They are real specialists in hollow ball production. Their designs and powerful image has always surprised me, since I met this company many years ago. I invite you to visit their web-site: www.zedcandy.com

They have one big brand:; JAWBREAKERS which includes hollow balls in different designs and sizes (Mammooth Jawbreaker, Monster jawbreaker, etc). The hollow balls have funny designs, like the ones that resemble an eye (Terror eyes) or a golf ball. There are other brands of bubble gum, such as GUM POWDER (in this case consists on coated nuggets of gum) or ZAPPERS  (small gum squares). All the products from Zed Candy move away from the traditional, conventional, well-known styles and are able to present an innovative and striking look.

During ISM’13 Zed Candy presented a world first, which is a ball with 4 colour print (the logo of the company) on it. Also very powerful is the lollipop consisting on a liquid center, with bubble gum around it and then coated with 3 different layers (colours) of candy. This sophisticated product is called TORNADO POPS.

According to Brendan during last years he feels that the market is asking for higher quality products and that low price/low quality is not selling as much as before. Children are more and more novelty driven. About the future, he is worried about volatile raw material prices, currencies and legislations. As in international business manager he has to deal with those variables and it is a tough challenge. He also feels (and I fully agree with him, but I will discuss about this in another post) that ISM is getting smaller.

Thank you, Brendan, for your time and explanations!

 

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