Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

Magnetic gum packaging 23/05/2013

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 11:36 AM
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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)

 

Biodegradable gum 20/04/2013

Filed under: Research — Joan Mestres @ 10:14 AM
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Now it’s been a while since I last posted about biodegradable gum.

So for those of you interested on the subject, here is a link to confectionerynews.com which informs about a new patent being filed by Mondelez on this matter.

As you know, this is a hot subject and many companies are working on developing this type of gum which would be more environmentally friendly. There is a product already in the market, Rev7 but it does not seem to really take off. In fact it has been withdrawn from the US market. All the research turn mainly about news types of polymers. There are many polymers which degrade easier than the ones currently in use, but they do not offer an acceptable chewability. So the main task is to find  a polymer with the right degradability and nice chew profile. In this case, the article and the related patent mentions “alternating copolymer of C2-C10 alkene and maleic anhydride”.

 

Printed gum. Mondelez Patent 15/04/2013

Filed under: Production & Machinery — Joan Mestres @ 7:20 PM
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Mondelez has filed a patent related to a new system of printing gum. you see the link to the article in confectionerynews.com here and the link to the patent itself here

Printed gum has been around for decades. I remember “Fruit Stripes” by Wrigley…

fruit-stripe-gum

 

but the newest launch in this field has been “ID” from Mondelez, so this patent refers to this product. I presented this one on my post on 13th August 2012.

ID_Gum

 

There are also hollow balls in the market which are printed on the coated surface. Come to my mind the ones from Confiteca (Ecuador) named “agogo” and the one from Zed Gum (Ireland) which I discussed in my post about this company from last ISM.

 

Trident 40 minutes 22/01/2013

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 12:52 PM
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I’d like to show you this product recently launched in Spain .

The lasting of the flavour in the chewing gum has always been one of the critical issues in the industry. However, this is the first time that I see a chewing gum that mentions specifically a precise time of lastingness (freshness in this case).

The same concept has been launched under the brands HOLLYWOOD and STIMOROL in other countries. I must admit that the promise is brave! The packaging is also interesting: A carton box with a sleeve that opens and the single units can be dosified through a hole. The units are coated chewing gums with a powdery layer outside and a district center. The whole product is full of coloured spots. For the time being I’ve found it with spearmint and with peppermint flavors. Each box contains 10 pieces. The launch has been supported by a strong marketing campaign including TV and facebook.

trident 40 min

 

Wrigley and Mondelez Marketing 10/01/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 7:12 PM
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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!

Mondelez marketing

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.

Wrigley marketing

 

New products in China and Korea 20/11/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 2:31 PM
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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.

 

Argentina 18/10/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 4:14 PM
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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.

 

Nostalgia 01/10/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 6:15 PM
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Now that we have to name the second player in our field “Mondelez” instead of Kraft, there many names that come to my mind which are no longer in use.

The same company, Kraft, took over some years ago Cadbury, which in turn had purchased Adams from Pfizer. Adams, a pioneer in our industry, was belonging to Warner Lambert. Cadbury also absorbed the Danish Dandy, the Argentinian Stani, the Egyptian BimBim and many others.

The other big player, Wrigley, is now within the Mars Inc. group, but it had absorbed some companies in the past, like Joyco (previously named General de Confiteria).

If we llok at the suppliers, we can also find names that are not there anymore. In the field of flavours I remember Bush Boake Allen (BBA), now in IFF; or Quest and Tastemaker now in Givaudan. In terms of machinery we can remember that names of Togum, Comeck or WLS. Many of their machines are still in factories around the world. Or even Nagema, from East Germany, for packaging.

If you also remember those names, it means that you have been around for quite a while as well….

 

Kraft new name 22/03/2012

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 6:03 PM
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Kraft foods has announced that the new name for its Global Snacks Company will be MONDELEZ. The North American grocery business will keep the Kraft name.
We will be seeing this name on the shelves around the world. It sounds quite Spanish to me (this termination in “-ez” is like Spanish names Gomez, Martinez, Rodriguez, Sanchez…) but maybe is just a personal bias. I don’t know how it sounds to American (or other countries) ears. It seems that this name combines the words “Monde” (= world) and “Delez” (= delicious). So we have a “Delicious world” !!