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
We knew that Mondelez had divestment plans for its gum business, but today appeared a press release announcing that Perfetti Van Melle is the company that is going to take over this part of the business. The production plants in US and Poland, and all the famous brands such as Trident, Dentyne, Bubalooo, etc will be now (pending of authorization from Authorities) part of the Italian player.
Mondelez keeps its gum business in other parts of the world (the factories in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand … and specially China, come to my mind)
It is interesting that some of these brands became part of Mondelez coming from the acquisition of Cadbury, and looking further back in time, we will find Warner Lambert and… Adams! Now, will be part of Perfetti in these markets. So, I wonder, are we going to see a Trident made by Perfetti in Europe and a Trident made by Mondelez in, let’s say South America? That’s going to be interesting.
You can see more details in these articles:
This move involving the second and third players in the chewing gum industry will shake the market and might trigger further moves.
I was shocked a few days ago when I read the news that Mondelez (Number 2 chewing gum producer worldwide) is planning to divest its gum business. If this finally comes true, it can be one of the largest and most important moves in the chewing gum industry in this XXI century so far.
According to the press release the company only consider this option in developed markets, while they plan to keep the business in the rest. This clearly seems a result of the Covid19 pandemic, which resulted on decrease in chewing gum sales (not only for Mondelez but for almost everybody, I’d say).
Who can be ready to take this business? The first name that came to my mind is Ferrero. The Italian company has been trying to enter the chewing gum market without much success so far (their “TicTac Gum” was withdrawn from the market) and would be an opportunity to take well-established, recognized brands such as Trident in their portfolio. Let’s see what the future brings to us!
I leave you here some articles on this
A clear trend in recent years has been the use of natural gum base, from sapodilla trees in Mexico. Different companies have launched chewing gums formulated using only natural ingredients. The gum base is one of them but also the flavours and sweeteners are natural. Some of them use the claim “plastic free”.
I have talked in this website about natural gums in the past (The Humble, Endoca, Two Wise Chimps, BenBits, Simply gum, Chewsy,…) , so this is not new to us. I just want to introduce here three companies that were exhibiting in ISM:
TRUE GUM www.truegum.com
FOREST GUM www.forestgum.de
TREE GUM www.treegum.ch
Only the first one has the website in English. “True gum” has been in the market for quite a few years now and can be found in many supermarkets around Europe. Recently, it became part of The Humble group, a Swedish company that specializes in Oral Care products (not only gum) and offers its own natural gum as well.
Recently, we see also the well-known brand STIMOROL, by the giant Mondelez, also offering a natural version. This is available only in Denmark and Switzerland and it comes with 2 different flavours (Spearmint&Eucalyptus and Lemon&Ginger). I find quite interesting that one of the big names in the chewing gum industry has decided to take this way as well. Let’s see how this works in the market and… let’s see if other big names (Mars/Wrigley, Perfetti Van Melle, Lotte,…) decide to follow in the near future.
As this is a clear growing market segment, I wonder if the supply of natural gum base from the trees will be enough to cover the demand!!
This is not extremely new (it was launched last year), but I thought it was intresting enough to be posted here.
Mondelez, which produces the “LAYERS” gum (combination of 2 chewing gum layers with a chewy candy layers in between) launched a “Swedish Fish” version of this gum. It combines berry and lemon flavors.
“Swedish fish” is an interesting confectionery. You can learn more in this link
The press (www.confectionerynews.com) has released news about the new technology that Mondelez is using for the production of their top brands (Trident, Dentyne, Clorets, etc…). The new cooling system has been supplied by the German company GABLER and it offers huge processing advantages.
You can read the article following this link:
More news on this interesting topic have been published by confectionery news.com (see link).
Wrigley has filed a patent describing a new degradable gum. The way this is achieved is by formulating the gum base with “block polymers”. The company claims that the resulting product is more easily removed from surfaces such as sidewalks (in 20 seconds a high pressure hot water jet can remove more than 80% of the material)
According to wikipedia:
“Block copolymers comprise two or more homopolymer subunits linked by covalent bonds (4). The union of the homopolymer subunits may require an intermediate non-repeating subunit, known as a junction block. Block copolymers with two or three distinct blocks are called diblock copolymers and triblock copolymers, respectively.”
In this particular patent, the company uses polymers of at least 4 blocks composed of at east 2 different monomer systems.
The articles from confectionerynews.com mentions as well other companies that presented progresses on this controversial field of the chewing gum business (Mondelez, Revolymer, TNO, RSSL, GumLink, Fertin Pharma, University College Cork) . I also posted in the past about those patents and inventions.
Being flavor release one of the hot topics in the chewing gum industry I thought it would be interesting to post here about a new patent (another one!) around this subject.
This time, Mondelez has patented a “3D object” made of polymers (preferably polyethylene glycol) which claims to provide a faster flavor release. Of course, it can be applied as well to active ingredients other than flavor, if this is the case. It is true that gum base traps many flavor elements (this is in fact one of the key aspects for a long lasting effect!) and this can limit a quick release of those components. This new “3D object” dissolves immediately in the saliva, providing a quick release of the flavor.
I wonder if we will ever see this invention applied in a product in the market. Looking forward to that!
I reproduce here two articles published by Oliver Nieburg in “confectionerynews.com”
Some days ago we learnt that Wrigley France is going to cut 207 jobs in the Biesheim factory. The production of pellets (dragées) will be transferred to another plant. The production of sticks and tabs (for France and for the European market) will remain. The company plans to build an “European Gum Base and Soft Gum Center of Excellence” in that French town located next to Strasburg and the German border.
Today the news are that Mondelez closes the factories in Lebanon and Morocco. It has not been announced which factories will absorb that production.While 105 employees are affected by the closure in Lebanon, the staff in Morocco (43) will be offered a position in other Kraft or Mondelez business units (beverage or biscuits).
Mondelez Lebanon and Morocco article
Both decisions originate from a slow sales performance in those areas. For instance, the production in Wrigley France dropped 33% since 2007. This is directly related to the economic situation in Europe.
I am not talking much about packaging. I regret this because it is one of the most important features in a chewing gum. It is the “dress” that presents it to the final consumer, so it says a lot about the positioning of the product, its characteristics, the type of user to whom it is addressed, etc. Not to mention the more technical aspects in which packaging is involved, like effects on the shelf life…
There are innovations in packaging, like there are in flavours, in sweeteners, in process machinery or in any other aspect of chewing gum. New forms of packaging are designed to protect the product and to present it in the most appealing way to the consumer. Let’s take for example one of the latest: ID Gum launched by Mondelez not too long ago. This packaging contains magnetic elements that allow to be re-closed as many times as needed. It is the first time that this feature is applied to chewing gum so it deserves full consideration.
You can see more in this link from AIPIA (Active & Intelligent Packaging Industry Association)
Chewing Gum Consultant 