Cadbury grabs U.S. gum share from Wrigley

By David Jones

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Cadbury Schweppes (CBRY.L) scored points in the U.S. gum wars in 2007, as its Stride and Splash products helped it reach 34.5 percent market share by grabbing 3 percentage points away from market leader Wm. Wrigley Jr Co WWY.N.

Cadbury, the world's largest confectionery group, said that gum makers were not facing significantly rising raw commodities prices. Gum ingredients are not rising and Cadbury's sugarless gums use little sweeteners.

Cadbury said its market share stayed at 34.5 percent in January against Wrigley at around 59 percent despite the Chicago-based group launching a number of new products to counter Cadbury's market advance over the last 5 years.

"We have an active competitor in Wrigley, but a good competitor will push us and expand the whole category," Cadbury's head of its global chewing gum operations, Jim Cali, told the Reuters Food Summit in Chicago on Monday.

The British group's U.S. gum market share has risen from 27 percent in 2003 when it bought Adams to make it the world's largest confectionery player and No. 2 in the global gum market, behind Wrigley. Trident gum has overtaken Dairy Milk as Cadbury's biggest brand after a 26 percent rise in 2007 revenues to over $1 billion (1.5 billion pounds).

Last year, Cadbury's global gum sales from brands such as Trident, Dentyne and Stimorol rose 14 percent compared to a 7 percent rise for its overall confectionery business, including chocolate and candy, after it performed well in Mexico, Brazil and France, where it is gum market leader.

Cadbury launched its Trident Splash liquid center-filled gum in late 2005 and its soft long-lasting flavor Stride gum in June 2006 in a number of fruit and mint varieties, giving its U.S. market share an immediate boost.

"If we continue to grow we will grow the category and within that we would like to gain market share," said Cali, adding that the overall U.S. gum market, worth over $3 billion annually, had grown revenues at 8 percent annually over the last two years, helped by the popularity of new products and sugarless gums.