Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

B II B – Denmark 19/02/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:45 PM
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Yesterday I was talking about Triki, the leading chewing gum manufacturer in Tunisia.

Today I’s like to present BIIB (Back-to-Basics). www.b11b.com

This is a Danish-German-Tunisian company specialized in private label. It was founded in 2001 by Mr Kolind and Mr Barenholdt and they offer chewing gum, hard and soft candy, jellies and mints (compresssed tablets). Triki is one of the partners and, as such, some of the production of the company B11B is carried out in Tunisia. However they have also agreements with other producers. This flexibility allows them to offer several types, formats and presentations (sticks, dragees, filled dragees, in flip top box, in multipack, in plastic bottle, etc. ).

B11B is open to receive requests for any private label around the world, and they have as well their own brands, such as OXYDENT. In ISM they launched a gum with Stevia, one of the trends in the industry during last months and that has been discussed in this web in the past. So here we have the possibility to find more and more in the shops some chewing gum sweetened with Stevia!

I thank Mr Henrik Jorgensen for his time during ISM.

 

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!

 

Chewing gum consultant 08/01/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product,Production & Machinery,Research,Uncategorized — Joan Mestres @ 10:18 PM
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Happy New Year 2013!!!

As some people has been asking me recently about the type of consultancy that I offer, I’d like today to post about this issue.

 

By clicking on the “Who?” tab you can see a bit of my CV and there I explain about the services I provide, which are both in the technical and in the marketing fields, always involving chewing gum.

I’ve been doing international seminars for many years and I enjoy a lot the training aspect of my job. I took my first steps in the chewing gum world and learnt initially from Douglas Fritz. Doug is still a key reference in the chewing gum world and I want to express my appreciation and admiration from here. He also invited me to participate in his book “Formulation and Production of Chewing and Bubble Gum”, Kennedy’s Publications Ltd, London , UK.

I also participated a lot in the exciting area of New Product Development, working in many research centers and together with R&D Departments of important companies worldwide I participated in the creation of some of the chewing gums that are today in the market. I have experience both in formulation/ingredients  and also from the process/machinery point of view.

Finally, as I was for 8 years working in Sales, taking care of the commercial activity in 35 different countries around the world, I can look at the chewing gum world from the Marketing and Sales point of view. I like studying the trends of the market and keeping contact with all the players of the industry (ingredient suppliers, machinery suppliers, chewing gum manufacturers,…).

You can contact me in my e-mail: joanmestres@hotmail.com and I’ll be glad to answer your requests. Of course, if you want to send me information to be posted in this blog, I’d very much appreciate it as well!

I will be attending next ISM and ProSweets (Cologne, Germany 27th – 31th January) so I hope to see you there as well.

 

 

 

Leatherhead 14/11/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 12:55 PM
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Last week I gave a presentation about Gum Technology in Leatherhead (UK). It was short (it usually happens to me that I extend too much when talking about chewing gum! ) but also very interesting and got very sharp questions from the audience, which is always challenging. I enjoyed it a lot and look forward to be there next year again.
Now comes a period when not many big events around chewing gum happen. One of them can be HiE (Health ingredients Europe), in Frankfurt, that is taking place just now, but the main next event will be ISM’13 by end of January (27th-30th) in Cologne, together with ProSweets.
http://www.ism-cologne.com/en/ism/home/index.php 

http://www.prosweets.com/en/prosweets/home/index.php