The Vassar brand was targeted to women, while Lotta Gum was intended for the general market. The new company introduced two new brands to the market. In 1909, Wrigley bought out Zeno and merged the two companies into the Wm. Wrigley ’s Spearmint and Juicy Fruit Make Their Debut: 1893Īs with the soap before it, demand for the new chicle-based “chewing candy ” outstripped demand for the baking powder. Until this time, chicle was used primarily in the manufacture of rubber. After conducting some research, Wrigley suggested to his supplier, Zeno Manufacturing, that it try making gum with chicle, a coagulated latex extract from tropical sapodilla trees. These primitive gums could hold flavoring agents, such as licorice extracts, but became tasteless globs after only a few minutes of energetic chewing.Īt the time, only about a dozen gum companies existed. Gum in the 1890s was still extracted from spruce gum and from paraffin, a tasteless and odorless waxy petroleum product that refused to be chewed down. Long in existence, gum extracted from spruce bark had been used by Native Americans as a relaxing and habit-forming pastime. Wrigley probably first saw chewing gum as a young soap peddler. Instead, he began to search for a new premium. However, tiring of the business, he chose not to offer soap as the premium for baking powder. In 1892, Wrigley abandoned the soap business altogether to concentrate on selling baking powder. Before long, demand for the baking powder outstripped demand for the soap. He chose to give away baking powder as a premium and, oddly, promoted soap sales with a cookbook. “Everybody likes something extra, for nothing, ” he once said.Īt this point, Wrigley decided to strike out on his own as an independent soap wholesaler. In addition, while the concept required some fine tuning, the experience confirmed to Wrigley that premiums were a good idea and an effective sales aid. While the dye in the umbrellas ran when it rained, the devices succeeded in selling a lot of soap.
Wrigley purchased 65,000 cheap red umbrellas to give away with soap purchases. Wrigley convinced his father to double the retail price of the soap and induce sales through premiums. The product, however, was shunned by local merchants who complained that, priced at only five cents per box, the soap provided them with almost no profit margin. In 1891, at the age of 29, Wrigley moved to Chicago to establish a western agency for his father ’s soap business. He learned to make friends through kind, deferential conversation, and, in the process, move tons of soap. Peddling soap, Wrigley soon learned the importance of gentle persuasion. Still in his teens, the junior Wrigley drove a horse-drawn wagon loaded with soap through the crowded metropolises of the northeastern United States. After serving a year as a soap stirrer, Wrigley won a promotion to the sales staff. Working ten hours a day, the boy was paid only $1.50 per week. The elder Wrigley put his son to work in his soap factory, giving him the job of stirring the soap vats with a large paddle. After running away from home at the age of 11 and suffering through repeated expulsions from school, the young Wrigley reportedly was told by his father after a pie throwing incident, “Your school life hasn ’t been a success. (who never used a comma in his name) began his career in business as a mischievous teenager in Philadelphia during the 1870s. Working in the Soap Business in the Late 1800s heads up the company as president and CEO.
Subsidiary Amurol Confections Company also manufacturers chewing gum and confectionary products for adults and youths under such names as Big League Chew, Bubble Tape, Hubba Bubba Sweet Roll, Squeeze Pop, and Velamints. Other brands sold worldwide include Airwaves, Alpine, Eclipse, Extra, Freedent, Hubba Bubba, Orbit, P.K., and Winterfresh. Wrigley dominates the gum industry with well known brands, including Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, Big Red, and Wrigley ’s Spearmint gum. The firm is a market leader in Europe as well, securing almost 50 percent of the continent ’s gum profits. Company operates as the largest chewing gum manufacturer in the world, supplying nearly half of all chewing gum sold in the United States. With over 110 years of success under its belt, Wm. NAIC: 31134 Nonchocolate Confectionery Manufacturing
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