I was reading this interesting article in “Candy Industry” about the situation and expectations for the market in 2023 and I thought that I would share it here as it touches some points related to important chewing gum companies. Not only the huge Mondelez and Perfetti (I mentioned their agreement in a separate entry that you can find here) but also about Colombina, Arcor and Ezaki Glico which are also very large and important companies.
Please see the link here to Candy Industry
I got news that Ferrero is going to discontinue its TicTac gum that was launched not so many years ago (see other posts in this blog).
The Italian company went into the gum segment by launching this interesting product and also by acquiring the gum base producer and supplier Eurobase, in Belgium.
They are probably redefining their strategy in this field as (I guess) the targets were not met. Actually I do not see the product in the shelves of the supermarkets, although we must also take into consideration that the pandemic has hit the whole gum market, so these are hard times for many the companies. The increase in cost of raw materials, the freight charges up in the sky, … all these are factors that do not help the business.
I will be very interested to see the new moves from Ferrero and from other companies, as for sure there will be some “re-positioning”.
Today I wanted to “replicate” an interview with the CEO of SIMPLY GUM, from the USA, which has been published by www.confectionerynews.com (see link to the article).
Mr Caron Proschan declares his intention to compete for shelf space with Wrigley. When it comes to the issue of shelf space, I cannot avoid to tell you how frustrating it is for us, people at the technical (R&D and production) side of the chain, to see that all our efforts in developing a great product, with right the flavor profile that we want, the packaging that appeals the most, the shape, size and appearance that has been stated in the definition of the product, do not lead to a successful sales record because of the wrong positioning at the sales point. This parameter is so important (and so difficult to obtain) that we might think that all the other are insignificant.
I leave you with the article by Douglas Yu, although I do not agree compeltely with all what is mentioned there… but that would be too long to discuss here…
It has taken me a while to write this report about the Fair but finally here it is.
I came back from ISM with mixed feelings. From one side, I was really excited to see new products and hear companies that are doing really well. I think ISM is a must for every company that wants to be “seen” in the world of confectionery. From the other side I saw a lot of empty space, like if there were less exhibitors than other years. Some exhibitors i talked to, were complaining about the high cost that attending the fair represents for them and some mentioned that this show should take place every two years instead of yearly. Some of the halls were partially empty (with curtains covering the space). However, i checked the official figures and they do not confirm this feeling. See the number of exhibitors according to the organization:
2010: 1.503
2011: 1.494
2012: 1.412
2013: 1.402
2014: 1.465
So, if we see this, it seems that 2014 has reversed the decreasing trend from last years. I’m sorry to say that this was not my perception.
In terms of number of visitors, these are the figures:
2012: 38.827
2013: 38.521
2014: “approx 35.000”
I do not know if the fact of not having the ProSweets show in parallel (like in previous years) has helped that. This year there is Interpack (in May, in Düsseldorf) so this show is probably considered as more interesting for machinery suppliers than ProSweets. Next year there will be ProSweets again, where suppliers for the confectionery industry exhibit their products (machines, ingredients, packaging material, etc.)
In any case, here is the link to the official report of the ISM organization where you will find more details about this edition: ISM
During next days I will be showing the different chewing gum novelties that I found in the show, as i did last year. i must say that this year the list will be, unfortunately, shorter because some companies did not launch any novelties.
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!
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.
Wasabi KitKat (Nestlé) or Cheese Chocolate (Meiji-Japan) are only some of the amazing developments that we find in the Far East. You can see them following this link
http://www.confectionerynews.com/Formulation/Asian-innovation-Wasabi-Kit-Kats-and-cheese-chocolate © 2012 – William Reed Business Media SAS
But in our field of chewing gum two novelties are being described in the website above: A bubble gum launched by Lotte, in Korea and the appearance of “Stride”, by Mondelez in China.
Both can be considered oddities. The former because bubble gum is usually not the field where the innovation efforts focus, the later because the presence of Mondelez in the huge Chinese market is almost inexistent. Chinese market is (according to Euromonitor 2011) dominated by Wrigley (ca. 40% market share in value), followed at the distance by Orion, Lotte and Perfetti (all within the 3 to 5% bracket). Then various local players have much smaller shares. We will follow very closely how the launching of the “Stride” brand (already well-known in other countries) develops and if this really represents the disembark of Mondelez in the Chinese gum market.
I was recently in Argentina, so I take this excuse to comment a bit on the gum market of this country.
It is a clear duopoly with Kraft/Cadbury holding 54% market share in value and the local player Arcor 42%. Not much room left for the others! Each of them have their very strong brands (Beldent and TopLine respectively) well established in the market since many years. Being sugar free brands, these are gaining market share each year to other sugared brands like Bubaloo or Bazooka (both Cadbury), which decrease, following the general world-wide trend. We can find another common trend also in Argentina: Increase of chewing gum and decrease of bubble gum, with functional gum being a strong driver for the increase.
While bubble gum accounts for 12400 T and only 714 Million Peso value, chewing gum represents 7400 T but 1300 Million Peso value!
Two specificities of this market are the high inflation rate (around 25%) and the increased legislation to protect the local economy by making imports more and more difficult. Both issues affect the chewing gum market. The perspectives are positive and some growth (2%) is expected.
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.
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:
Chewing Gum Consultant 