Candy and snack company Mondelez International said Monday it will sell its chewing gum business in the US, Canada and Europe to Perfetti Van Melle Group for $1.35 billion.
Chicago-based Mondelez said the deal includes its Trident, Bubblicious, Dentyne and Chiclets gum brands as well as European confectionary brands Cachou Lajaunie and La Vosgienne.
Perfetti — a private company that makes products such as Mentos mints and Chupa Chups lollipops — will also buy Mondelez’s manufacturing plants in Rockford, Illinois, and Skarbimierz, Poland.
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Mondelez said it will continue to manufacture the gum in other regions, including Latin America and Asia. But the sale brings it closer to its goal of shifting more resources to its chocolate, biscuit and baked treats brands, where the company sees huge growth opportunities. Mondelez owns the Cadbury and Toblerone chocolate brands, as well as Oreo and Chips Ahoy biscuits, Triscuit biscuits and Perfect Snacks nutrition bars.
Today, about 80 percent of Mondelez’s revenue comes from chocolate and biscuits; it hopes to increase that to 90 percent by 2030.
According to the American Confectioners Association, sales of chewing gum and mints in the United States will increase by 3.8% in 2021. But that increase was outpaced by a 9.2 percent increase in chocolate sales and a 14.5 percent increase in non-chocolate confectionary sales.