Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

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

 

Beneo 25/03/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:53 PM
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Today I will leave the presentation of chewing gum producers in ISM and talk a bit about a supplier.  There were a few suppliers presenting there, so I will discuss about their ingredients as well.

Today is time for BENEO. The group has many branches and deals with sugar beet, rice and wheat products. It is itself a branch of the big german Südzucker group and probably the part of Beneo which comes closer to the chewing gum field is Beneo-Palatinit (Others are Beneo-Orafti, Beneo-Remy, Beneo-BioBasedChemicals and Beneo-Animal Nutrition). The company has an excellent application laboratory where they can prepare and analyize samples of many confectionery products.

This company produces two main groups of products: Isomalt and Palatinose.

Isomalt includes a family of different grades. It can used as bulk swetener (Isomalt ST) in sugarfree gum, but mainly as coating agent (Isomalt GS) for the chewing gum pillows. It has other applications such as tabletting (Isomalt DC) and chocolate production (Isomalt LM).

Recent studies conducted by the company show, for instance, that isomalt can replace the Mannitol in the chewing gum formulation. Many producers use 5% of Mannitol in the formulation. The main objective of this, is to act as anticrystallizing agent for the main bulk sweetener (usually sorbitol).

See more in this link

Palatinose is a trade name for the ingredient Palatinose, a sugar substitute which is “the only low glycemic carbohydrate providing longer lasting energy in the form of glucose” and it has also its application as sweetener in chewing gum.

In ISM the company presented a chewing gum which includes Palatinose and Stevia as sweeteners and a candy with Isomalt and Stevia. This follows the trend noticed in the market of increased use of Stevia as intensive sweetener. I mentioned about this in previous postings.

Let me reproduce here a text supplied by the company itself discussing about one of my passions: “Innovative applications”. In this case about tabletted gum, which is interesting in itself:

“One of the most interesting uses of the multi-layer compressed gum technology is Procter and Gamble’s Wick Blau Icebergs Sugar Free Chewing Gum.  Launched late in 2008 in Germany, the chewing gum features a white layer of peppermint, with a special chewing gum layer.  Containing ISOMALT, this sugar free mint product has been designed to have two effects; to provide an immediate refreshing feeling, as well as prolonging the product’s overall taste with the chewing gum.  A more recent product brought to market featuring a similar two-layered mint/gum approach is Vivident’s Cool Shock Two-Layer Chewing Gum.  This strawberry flavoured gum contains no added sugar, thanks to the inclusion of ISOMALT, and has been reformulated into trianglular-shaped tablets for marketing impact.”

In the links below you can find more about the company and products:

www.beneo-group.com

www.beneo.com

www.beneonews.com

I thank Ms Ingrid Willibald-Ettle for her time and explanations during ISM.

 

LTK TRADING – Turkey 20/03/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 1:19 PM
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More about Turkish chewing gum producers!

Today LKT Trading, part of the huge Latek Holding, which contains many companies in many different fields (really impressive). But the one which is of our interest is the chewing gum branch of this Holding, which includes 2 factories in Istanbul area.

It has about 20 years experience and 300 employees. The owner is Mr Zekeriye Mete. You can read more in www.latekholding.com or www.ltktrading.com

The company has two main brands: “Happy Gum”, which is the “chewing gum part” and consists of dragees and sticks presented in different packagings (plastic bottles, flip top boxes….), and “Gum Babol” which is the “bubble gum part” and has cut & wrap products in multipack presentation. The new launch for ISM was a HAPPY GUM sugar free presented in an envelop and with 6 different flavors.

According to Euromonitor, Sugarfree chewing gum accounts for 72% in volume of the total gum sold in Turkey in 2011. The trend, of course is for positive growth of this segment,a s products become more and more sophisticated.

I thank Mr Cem Erman for his time and explanations during the fair.

 

SAADET – Turkey 19/03/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 3:49 PM
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Let’s continue with Turkish companies and let me introduce today SAADET Confectionery Co.

This company was founded in 1996, has 4 factories in Istanbul and about 1000 employees. It is owned by Mr Subet. Its web site is www.saadet.com.tr

You will see that they produce not only chewing gum, but also jellies, marshmallow, licorice and others.

In terms of chewing gum the main brands are : NAZAR (sugafree ministick), OCEAN (dragees and sticks), PUNTO (bubble cut & wrap) and MISKET (ball). So they cover a very good range of products both chewing and bubble, both sugared and sugarfree, both coated and uncoated. There are also other brands that you can find in their website.

The big launch in ISM was NAZAR Istanbul, which is a double layer chewing gum ministick, presented in a nice envelope pack. Of course, mastic flavor is present in the products from Saadet! I attach a picture of this.

I thank Mr Suat Ecran for his time and explanations at his booth.

Nazar Saadet

 

Indaco – Italy 06/03/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:29 AM
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INDACO is an Italian company founded in 1999 and owned by the Cola family. In ISM I talked to Mr Silvio Cola, to whom I thank for his time.

The company has about 50 employees and is located near Napoli. They produce, of course chewing gum but also hard candy, chocolate lentils and some hazelnut, almonds and similar products coated with chocolate. www.indacocandy.com 

It must be very difficult to play in the italian chewing gum market, considering the dominant position of Perfetti. Or maybe is because of this that there are opportunities! Indaco is selling not only in Italy, but also in about 20 countries mainly in North Africa, Middle East and Southern Europe. They are looking for expansion into other areas. Indaco’s own brand for chewing gum ins COLFRESH, which represents about 60% of their production, and then they produce for private label which takes the remaining 40%. In this ISM’13 they presented a 10 stick (6 flavors) zipper pack for private label.

According to Mr Cola during recent years there has been an excess of innovation which has confused the consumers with too many product launches. Many products in Italy are above the 1,5 Eur and consumers, due to the current crisis, are looking for products below this price, so Indaco intends to focus on that and also in the private label sector. They have an eye on emerging markets like India, China and others where the sugar free is slowly increasing the market share. Indaco produces 90% of their chewing gum as sugar free, so this is one of their strong points.

 

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!

 

SANCHEZ CANO (FINI) – SPAIN 25/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 6:33 PM
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The company Sanchez Cano SA was founded in Molina de Segura, Murcia (South East of Spain) in 1973 and it is still owned by the family with the same name. They have about 550 employees at the moment and some years ago a factory in Brazil was added to the initial Spanish factory. The company has also branches in UK, Chile and Portugal. In their web-site (www.fini.es) they claim to be market leaders in Spain for Marshmallows, jellies and liquorice.

They have two main brands for chewing gum: FINI and KLET’S. They are specialists in balls (hollow of filled with liquid). The brand KLET’s covers the sugarfree dragees.

During last ISM, FINI launched a new version of the sugar free coated pillows, named KLET’S ENERGY, which contains taurine and caffeine. Also new was the “Burger Gum”: A bubble gum with interesting shape and also “MEGA COLA” which a gum with the shape of a cola bottle.

burger gumcola fini

I thank Mr Manolo Nicolas for his time and explanations and also for taking me to the stand in front of FINI, where I met Mr Max Eisenbud, who explained me about the chewing gum brand launched in August 2012 by the world-famous tennis player Maria Sharapova. The venture is named SUGARPOVA (www.sugarpova.com) and includes different types of sweets, but in terms of gum they have nice tennis balls like the ones in the picture. This product is produced by Sanchez Cano  and that’s why I include it here. The image of both stands and the products are really outstanding.

tennis sugarpova ©2012 sugarpova.com

 

Finally, I attach a link to the article that Oliver Nieburg wrote for confectionery news.com about the same companies which will help complete the information: link confectionerynews fini (©2013 William Reed Business Media SAS)

 

 

Colombina – Colombia 20/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 11:45 AM
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Colombina is a clear example or regional leader. The company, based in Cali (Colombia), has a long history, as it was founded back in 1918 by Mr Caicedo (and still today family-owned). Originally it was a sugar cane processing plant which later developed in the huge food company which it is today, with over 10.000 employees. The company is not only producing chewing gum, there are also all types of candies, jellies, marshmallow, chocolate, cookies, snacks, ice cream, sauces and jams. Colombina has 6 production plants, and chewing gum in produced in two of them, one in La Paila (near Cali) and the other in Guatemala. You can find more about the company in their web site www.colombina.com 

The chewing gum brands are: BON BON BUM (a successful lollipop with gum inside), XTIME (coated dragees) and SPLOT (bubble gum balls).

There are no big novelties presented in ISM. Mr Miguel Mejía Tobón (to whom I thank for his time) mentions the “Wild apple” flavour for the BON BON BUM. He thinks that the future of the industry in his region will go more towards sugarfree products and added value products. This is the trend that we see in many regions of the world, as producers try to move away from the low-end products.