US gum sales below expectations for Rev7 degradable gum makers
It now plans to test consumer demand in one European market – expected to be the UK.
In the firm’s first results since it became a public company it reported sales three times higher than last year at £135,000 ($219,000), but also a gross loss of £242,000 ($392,000).
It put the loss down to deliveries of Rev7 gum to the US at a time when “US demand was difficult to gauge due to the early stage of the US business”.
Revolymer sent a stock of Rev7gum to the US in early 2011 and September 2011.
The stock did not sell as expected and the company had to pay £305,000 as convenience stores could not allow the products to enter the supply chain because product had under 6 months shelf-life remaining.
Developing consumer interest
Robin Cridland. Revolymer’s chief financial officer and company secretary, told ConfectioneryNews.com: “Our strategy is to license the technology to the larger players – selling the gum is simply designed to demonstrate there is consumer interest at some level in a removable degradable gum
“In general, our overall strategy in all our business areas is licensing our IP rather than selling consumer products directly, as we are a small technology company.”
Degradable gum: interested parties
Revolymer made an initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange in July this year, raising £25 million.
The company is testing demand for Rev7 in the US in a bid to secure a licensing deal with established players.
Its Rev7 product is a sugar-free chewing gum that uses sorbitol and xylitol as sweeteners that degrades between two to three months in drains and less than two years on pavements.
The gum market leader Wrigley and the number two player Kraft Foods (soon to be Mondelez International) are looking to introduce less sticky gums that bio-degrade faster and are friendlier to the environment amid pressure from authorities and campaigners to reduce gum litter on streets.
Mars-owned Wrigley has its R&D department at work to find a solution while Trident-makers Kraft is looking for collaborators. (See HERE)
EU test: The UK market?
Revolymer has novel foods approval for the Rev7 gum base in the EU and says it is looking to test the market in one EU territory towards the end of 2012.
Company CEO Roger Pettman previously told this site that Revolymer plans to launch Rev7 in the UK in pocket-packs and with a twist to the flavor. (See HERE)
Board members and nicotine gum
During the first half of the year, Revolymer appointed Julian Heslop former chief financial officer for GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and ex-president of global operations for chemicals firm Croda to the company’s board of directors.
The firm is also tackling the private label market after it launched a nicotine gum in Canada to compete with Johnson & Johnson’s Nicorette gum, which account for around 45% of the global market.
