Chewing gum industry facts for kids

Chewing gum is a popular treat enjoyed by people all over the world! It's a soft, chewy substance that you can chew for a long time without swallowing. Two huge companies, Wrigley from the US and Cadbury from the UK, make most of the chewing gum sold globally. Together, they sell about 60% of all the gum in the world!

Other big players in the chewing gum market include:

• 35% Wrigley Company (United States)
• 26% Cadbury Trebor Bassett (United Kingdom)
• 14% Lotte (South Korea and Japan)
• 6% Perfetti Van Melle (Italy)
• 2% Hershey's (United States)

Many smaller companies also make up the rest of the market. In 2012, people spent about $26 billion on chewing gum worldwide. Most of this money, about 85%, was for regular chewing gum, while the other 15% was for bubble gum.

The Story of Chewing Gum

Chewing gum has a long and interesting history! People have been chewing on things for thousands of years, like tree sap or plant resins. But modern chewing gum, as we know it, started to appear in the 1800s.

Early Chewing Gums

• 1848: An inventor named John B. Curtis created one of the first commercial chewing gums in the US. He called it "State of Maine Pure Spruce Gum."
• 1869: A Mexican general, Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, brought a natural gum base called "chicle" to New York. This was a big step for modern gum.
• 1872: Thomas Adams Jr. started selling his own chicle-based gum called "Adams New York No. 1."
• 1875: Adams made the first flavored gum by adding liquorice. He called it "Adams’ Black Jack gum."
• 1880: William J. White made gum softer and sweeter by adding corn syrup, sugar, and flavors to his "Yucatan" brand.
• 1881: Dr. Edward E. Beeman, a doctor from Ohio, added pepsin to his gum, hoping it would help with digestion.

Big Companies and New Ideas

• 1891: The famous Wrigley Company was started in the United States.
• 1895: The "Chiclets" brand of gum was introduced.
• 1899: William J. White helped merge several gum makers to form the American Chicle Co., a major gum company.
• 1899: "Dentyne" gum was created. Its name comes from "dental hygiene" because it was meant to help clean teeth. It had a cinnamon flavor.
• 1906: The first bubble gum, "Blibber-Blubber," was introduced by Frank H. Fleer Co.
• 1916: The Hershey Company, known for its chocolate, also started making chewing gum.
• 1928: Walter Diemer at the Fleer Company made a much better bubble gum called "Dubble Bubble." This gum was easier to blow bubbles with!
• 1938: Topps was established in the US, and they would later become famous for their bubble gum.
• 1948: The Japanese company, Lotte, began making chewing gum.
• 1948: The first sugar-free chewing gum was developed by Dr. Bruno Petrulis.

Modern Gum Innovations

• 1953: Topps launched their very popular Bazooka bubble gum.
• 1964: American Chicle Co. introduced "Trident," one of the first sugar-free chewing gums to become widely popular.
• 1975: Life Savers created "Bubble Yum," a soft and chewy bubble gum.
• 1977: "Bubblicious" bubble gum was launched.
• 1979: Wrigley introduced "Hubba Bubba," another popular bubble gum.
• 1980: "Big League Chew," a shredded bubble gum that looks like chewing tobacco, was launched by Wrigley.
• 1988: "Bubble Tape," a long, flat roll of bubble gum, was created by a Wrigley company.
• 1993: Cadbury bought its first chewing gum business in Argentina, starting its journey into the gum market.
• 2000: Cadbury bought the "Hollywood" chewing gum business in France.
• 2001: Two big European candy companies, Perfetti (Italy) and Van Melle (Netherlands), merged to form a new giant.
• 2003: Cadbury made a huge purchase, buying the global gum business of the Adams gum division from Pfizer for $4.2 billion. This made Cadbury a major player in the gum world.
• 2004: Wrigley Company also expanded by buying the Joyco gum and candy business from Spain.
• 2008: Mars Inc., the company that makes M&Ms, bought the Wrigley Company, creating a new combined company called Mars-Wrigley.