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.
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!!
There is a clear key word when talking about current trends in chewing gum: NATURAL.
More and more products are launched under this claim (which of course does not only apply to chewing gum, but it is a trend in all types of food and even beyond).
One way to make a gum that is natural is using the right ingredients (natural gum base, natural sweeteners, natural flavours etc) but there is also the packaging! Some producers (not all) have this in mind and today I have read this article in Candy Industry mentioning that one of the leaders (Perfetti Van Melle) has launched a gum with an interesting cardboard packaging. I am sure we will se more coming this way. Congratulations!
Oliver Nieburg informs that Perfetti Van Melle has been fined with 180.000 Eur for misleading claims associated to their chewing gum (Mentos, Happydent, Vivident and Daygum). The company rejects the accusation and says that “All claims on products are in compliance with relevant food legislation and fully scientifically supported”.
I must admit that I always found this field (what claims can be associated to the product) very difficult. Maybe because I am chemist and not lawyer, so when I dive into all these different legislations in each country, the different definitions (e.g. what is considered “organic”, or what is “natural”, …) and what can be claimed or not… I get a bit confused. However, it is very exciting and interesting to see what goes on and to learn more and more about this.
Here the link to the article
As coating the gum is always one of the most critical, and at the same time, one of the most important, steps of the production process, I thought this news appeared yesterday would be of your interest.
The new patent, filed by Perfetti, claims that there is no use of the usual wax or shellac at the final stage of the coating. Instead, this patent, describes the use of powder at the final stage of the coating. By doing so they obtain what they call “satin effect”. Here you have the link to the article published by Confectionery news.
If we review the usual coating process, carried out inside a coating pan which turns continuously, we find three main steps:
1- Initial stage /Gumming. When we add a layer of gumming agent (gum arabic) on the surface of the gum. The reason for this is to fill the holes on the rough surface of the gum and to help the next layer to adhere to the gum center.
2- Engrossing stage. Where we add several syrup charges to the gum center. The syrup is a solution of sugar (or poliol in case of sugar free products) with water. When the syrup is added all the centers get wet (there is “distribution” phase) and then they are dried with air, so the water evaporates and the sugar/poliol remains on the surface. This is repeated many times until the producer obtains the required weight of coating in the piece. Choosing the right poliol and drying the surface in a proper way will result on a crunchy coating, which is what the final consumer appreciates. This engrossing stage is time-consuming so all producers try to optimize the procedure in a way that the maximum amount of coating is obtained in the shortest possible time. One of the options is the use of syrup with higher concentration of solids (sugar or poliol). In this case, as we are adding more solid material every time we add the syrup, the coating is formed faster. However this will result on a rough surface which is not interesting. More diluted syrup will give a soother and nicer surface, but the coating time will be longer. Another option is to add the syrup faster (more additions per unit of time), but as the syrup wets the centers they become sticky and this practice has the risk of obtaining many pieces that stick together one to the other, which of course is not acceptable.
3- Final stage /Polishing. Once we have the coating layer that we want, we use shellac to seal and protect the gum piece and wax to make it shine. Usually this stage is not a major problem and does not require much time or expertise.
This final stage is the one that the Patent eliminates. Instead, it uses the addition of powder at the final stage. The powder will help dry the last addition of syrup. In fact this technique is used on what is called “soft coating”, which is used for other products. This technique (drying with powder) does not result on a crunchy product but reduces the coating time considerably. Jellies are coated at the engrossing stage with this “soft coating” technique because they do not need to be crunchy. This procedure described in the patent uses it only at the last stage, so I do not know the effect it will have on the final result. For sure the product will be less shiny (that’s why the name “satin effect”) due to the lack of wax. I do not know how this will affect the acceptance by the consumers, who usually prefer shiny and crunchy chewing gums.
I copy here the link to the news published to day in www.confectionerynews.com about the legal battle between Wrigley and Perfetti over the “WTF” trademark.
Wrigley considers that “WTF” can somehow overlap or coincide with their well-known brand “Winterfresh”. I have no other news about this issue other than the one appeared in this article, so I better just invite you to read it here
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:
I thank Ms Ingrid Willibald-Ettle for her time and explanations during ISM.
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.
Chewing Gum Consultant 