Americans who for decades have chewed on Wrigley’s stick gum are likely to find more of it in pellet form in the future.
Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. for years has sold pellet gums overseas–currently accounting for 60 percent of sales in Europe–but a recent introduction in this country of Eclipse, a sugar-free pellet breath freshener, suggests a new opportunity here.
A PK pellet gum was marketed by Wrigley until the late 1970s in the United States. It’s still available outside this country. Competitor American Chicle has dominated pellet gums for a long time.
Another pellet–Alpine cough-relief gum featuring menthol and eucalyptus as ingredients –is being sold by Wrigley in Canada, where it makes drug claims. Eventually this item will hit the United States, under that name or another.
More Top Picks Best Refrigerators
Wrigley also is marketing Airwaves, a vapor-release pellet similar to Alpine, in the United Kingdom. This item also may be U.S.-bound.
Pellet gums have gained favor with adults. William Wrigley Jr., the firm’s president-chief executive officer, told its annual meeting Monday that Eclipse was targeted primarily at “aging boomers.”
In what has to be one of the longest, drawn out (1 hour, 45 minutes) annual meetings in Wrigley history, the company chief covered a lot of turf, ranging from the disclosure that Eclipse gum shortly will be produced at its Gainesville, Ga., plant (rather than being imported from France) to his disappointment with the recent performance of the company’s stock, which reached a 52-week low last Thursday of $62.75 a share.
Wrigley is tight-lipped on new-product development, but CEO Wrigley said activity has been stepped up, and observers believe new items might include more gums or confections that will have a whitening feature, such as an Ice White brand sold in Europe, or will have some mint attributes. Wrigley’s Amurol Confections unit sells a breath freshener called Everest.
William Wrigley Jr., who a year ago took command of the 109-year-old firm, reportedly evaluated a possible acquisition in the mint business when his father, the late William Wrigley, still was running the company.
William Wrigley died a year ago this Wednesday, and there was a moment of silence for him at the beginning of the annual meeting, at which time his son said the father “left behind a marvelous legacy.”
Wrigley’s best performers for all of 1999 were Winterfresh and Juicy Fruit in the United States, along with Eclipse, which wasn’t introduced nationally until June, shareholders were told. Wrigley’s Extra is holding its own, but its other brands need to be rejuvenated.
Among other topics:
Wrigley said “no” in response to a query whether the firm had recently been approached for an acquisition by such companies as Swiss giant Nestle.
Wrigley was less than lukewarm when it was suggested the firm might hire a celebrity spokesman like Sammy Sosa, with one stockholder noting how hypester Michael Jordan had “done well” for other companies.
Wrigley, whose global sales were $2.06 billion in 1999, last year increased U.S. advertising by 11 percent, reversing a 3 percent cutback in 1998, when media outlays are believed to have been in the $110 million to the $115 million range.
As in recent years, shareholders were shoehorned into the Gainesville Room of the lower level of the Wrigley Building–a room with no more than 120 seats.
Other attendees were in satellite rooms with TV monitors, causing corporate gadfly Martin Glotzer to complain with some justification that the meeting deserved a much bigger location.
As attendees left, it was clear that more than a few were still singing the blues about Wrigley stock, which a year ago last month hit $98. In recent months, it has fallen steeply, like many other packaged-goods companies. The stock Monday lost $1, to $64.06.
Adcetera: “Imagine What’s Next” is the slogan of Procter & Gamble Co.’s first-ever global corporate branding campaign, via Leo Burnett Co. here, insiders say. Edelman Public Relations Worldwide has the PR assignment on this branding program. Separately, former Chicagoan Mary Baglivo, an executive VP of J. Walter Thompson USA in New York, was named chief operating officer of JWT North America. She will be working with Peter Schweitzer, president of JWT Worldwide, who will still have the heads of JWT’s offices reporting to him. Both are in New York.
Strictly Personal: Birthday greetings to Hosen Oshita, 74; Brian Rosen, 30 (Sams Wine & Spirits); furniture designer Dan Jensen, 48; George Buerger, 52 (Walgreens); Paul Raab, 42 (A.T. Kearney); Jean Banchet, 59 (Le Francais); and Anni Greenblatt, 49.