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Gum manufacturers turn to innovation to keep sales from popping

Gum manufacturers turn to innovation to keep sales from popping
Gum manufacturers turn to innovation to keep sales from popping


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As Hershey debuts the biggest innovation for its Ice Breakers gum brand in five years, a top executive isn’t shy about the company’s outlook for the offering: “We expect it to be a pretty big deal.”

The new product line, called Flavor Shifters, changes taste while the consumer chews it, going from Wild Berry to Coolmint or Wintergreen to Coolmint.

For a category that has largely depended on new flavors or packaging as its primary sources of innovation to attract consumers, Flavor Shifters, which hits shelves this month, tries something new.

“We’re targeting people whose gum and refreshment routine has just gotten boring. How do we invigorate it? How do we deliver some excitement?” Dan Mohnshine, Hershey’s vice president of marketing, U.S. confection, grocery and protein snacks, said in an interview.

Hershey described Flavor Shifters as a “big bet” on the Ice Breakers brand, which has been growing 9% annually since 2020. Mohnshine said the innovation “pushes the boundaries” in gum by extending the category beyond the single-flavor experience for which it is known.


“We’re targeting people whose gum and refreshment routine has just gotten boring. How do we invigorate it? How do we deliver some excitement?” 

Dan Mohnshine

Vice president of marketing, U.S. confection, grocery and protein snacks with Hershey


Gum sales sputtered during the pandemic as home-bound consumers no longer needed to freshen their breath at work, while dating or around friends and family. In 2020, sales plunged 22% to $2.5 billion, according to data analytics firm Circana. Rankin Carroll, Mars Wrigley’s chief brand officer, told The Wall Street Journal in June that lockdowns also cut down on impulse buys at stores, which are responsible for half of gum sales.

But as more people have returned to the office and resumed socializing with friends and family, gum has rebounded to surpass its pre-COVID total. Sales jumped roughly 15% in 2022 and 2023, and have increased 7% for the 52 weeks ended June 16 of this year to $3.4 billion, the Circana data showed.

Despite the uptick, gum has been losing popularity for years since peaking more than a decade ago. In 2011, 178 million Americans said they chewed gum, according to data from Statista. This year alone, 157 million people are expected to put a piece in their mouth.

“A traditional stick of gum, no one going to be excited about that,” said Tim Lawdan, brand manager with Ford Gum, the maker of shredded gum brand Big League Chew.

Hubba Bubba Skittles

Optional Caption

Courtesy of Mars.com

 

Goodbye Fruit Stripe, hello caffeine-infused gum

The decline in gum has promoted several companies to abandon it altogether.

Mondelēz International, which struggled for years to grow brands such as Bubblicious and Trident, sold the business in the U.S, Canada and Europe for $1.4 billion in October 2023 to focus on its thriving chocolate and biscuit operations. Ferrara also quietly discontinued production of Fruit Stripe and Super Bubble gums in 2022. 

This “was not taken lightly, and we considered many factors before coming to this decision, including consumer preferences, and purchasing patterns — and overall brand trends,” Brian Camen, a Ferrara spokesman, said at the time.

For companies such as Mars Wrigley that remain, it has created an opportunity.

Mars Wrigley, the world’s top gum maker, owns more than a dozen brands, including Hubba Bubba, Extra, Big Red and Orbit.

Mike Gilroy, vice president of trade development and sponsorship at Mars Wrigley, said the New Jersey company recently introduced a Hubba Bubba gum that incorporated flavors from its popular hard-shelled candy, Skittles. With Skittles’ high popularity among Gen Z consumers, Mars Wrigley was able to tap into that notoriety and bring its original flavors to gum, providing people with a reason to try Hubba Bubba — some of whom may haven’t chewed it in several years.

“As the clear market leader in gum, it’s important for us to not only innovate within the gum space to attract new users in but it’s also important for us to take a leadership role for the health of the category,” Gilroy said. 

For the gum category to obtain any meaningful growth, it must embrace other value propositions like caffeine or the improvement of teeth and gum health, said Dan McCarthy, an associate professor of marketing at the University of Maryland.

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