Chewing Gum Consultant

Professional Chewing gum industry meeting point

ISM 2014 . Report 26/02/2014

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 2:31 PM
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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.

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ISM 2014 25/01/2014

Filed under: Market & Fairs — Joan Mestres @ 10:15 AM
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It’s been a while that I do not post in my blog. That’s bad! But the good news is that ISM is here again and tomorrow I fly to Cologne/Germany to attend once more this show! Looking forward to meet old friends there and hoping to get many news to share with you during next weeks!!

 

LOTTE – Korea / Japan 05/04/2013

Filed under: Market & Fairs,New product — Joan Mestres @ 1:53 PM
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Today’s turn for one of the big names in the chewing gum industry: LOTTE

This huge group has even an entry in Wikipedia! They have many branches in different industries (electronics, tourism, publishing, building, finance, retail, …) but chewing gum was in the origin of the company back in 1948. Other food products in their range are: Drinks, Fast Food and Ice creams.

Lotte is producing chewing gum in many different factories, most of them in Asia, but I’d like to focus here on the new products presented last ISM by their headquarters:

Lotte Korea presented “Tri VIEW”. This is a tab (or ministick) with three different layers (this format is very trendy now in the market). The top and bottom layers are chewing gum whilst the middle layer is chewy candy. This allows for great flavour combinations, not only in terms of taste but also in terms of impact and lasting. I attach a photo taken with my iPhone (so I apologize for the “sub-optimal” quality!)

IMG_1918

Lotte Japan introduced two products. I discussed on a previous post about “ZEUS” (28th Aug 2012). This is also a three layer tab (or ministick) with the same concept as Tri VIEW and some others (discussed in the post I mentioned). ZEUS GUM comes in different flavors with “sexy” names: Aurora curtain, Snow storm, Thunder spark, Rain shower,…

Another product is “ENGINE”, which comes in cubic format with a slight coating and presented in a flip top box. There are different versions of the product, such as X-TRA SPEED, X-TRA WILD and X-TRA BURST and the product contains caffeine and guarana, so fall perfectly into the category of functional gum. The cubic presentation is also interesting because it is not very common in the market.

 

lotte xtra speedlotte engine open

 

zeus 2zeus 3zeus 4

 

 

 

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.

 

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!

 

New products 10/07/2012

Filed under: New product — Joan Mestres @ 4:05 PM
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Did you know about Satiereal(R)? This ingredient coming from saffron is said to induce satiety, thus assisting on slimming and weight management diets. You can read more details about it on www.satiereal.com
This ingredient has been used by the company Fembody, in the US to produce a gum that claims these properties. http://www.fembodynutrition.com/shop/product-tag/satiereal-saffron-extract/

http://www.fembodynutrition.com/shop/appetite-control-gum/

It is not my intention to support or promote this product. It IS my intention to show to you any chewing gum that goes out of the standard, like those using specific ingredients or having special shapes or packagings. This is on eo fhte reasons why I love Japan. The products that you find there are “special”, more sophisticated, using ingredients that are not so common in the rest of the world. If you come to know of any of these interesting products, please let me know.