American Chicle Company

American Chicle Company

The American Chicle Company was incorporated in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 2, 1899.[9] Its market capitalization was $9,000,000 with one third issued as preferred stock and 6% with cumulative dividends. The business was a merger of the major chewing gum concerns at the time: Adams Sons & Company in Brooklyn; Beeman Chemical Company; W. J. White & Sons in Cleveland; J. P. Primley in Chicago; Kis-Me Gum Company Louisville, Kentucky; and S. T. Britten & Co. in Toronto.[10][11] The corporation operated factories and gum forests in Yucatan.[12] William J. White served as the company's first president and Thomas Adams Jr. Was the first chairman.[13][14]

In 1914, the company acquired Chiclets from the Fleer Chewing Gum Company of Philadelphia.[14] It also acquired Dentyne in 1916.[15] In 1919, American Chicle bought land at Degnon Terminal in Long Island City to build a new factory.[16] On January 8, 1920, Don Ricardo Moreira, of San Salvador of the Coldwell & Moreira firm, registered American Chicle Co. trademarks in El Salvador.[17] In 1923, the company moved into its new 550,000 square foot, $2 million factory and headquarters.[3] The building could house over 500 employees and produced five million packages of chewing gum per day.[14] For decades, the building's Dentyne and Chiclet sign became a landmark for travelers entering Long Island. By 1935, American Chicle had 15% of the North American gum market, behind the William Wrigley Jr. Company and Beech-Nut Packing Company.[14]

American Chicle utilized Dancer Fitzgerald Sample in 1950 to promote its products via radio, newspapers, and television.[18]

American Chicle Group

American Chicle was acquired by the pharmaceutical company Warner-Lambert in 1962, with combined sales that year being estimated at around $300,000,000.[19] During the 1970s, American Chicle discontinued Black Jack and Clove in order to focus resources to the sugarless Trident and liquid-filled Freshen-Up. Beemans was removed from the US market and remained available only in Canada.[20] In 1976, an explosion at the American Chicle Company factory killed six workers and injured more than 40. It remained closed for five weeks following the incident.[21][22] In 1976, Bubblicious was released to compete against Bubble Yum.[23]

The company's Long Island City factory was shut down at the end of 1981.[24] Gum-making operations were moved to facilities in Anaheim, California and Rockford, Illinois.[22] The Anaheim factory was closed in 1985 during a period of consolidation for the company.[25] In the spring of 1986, American Chicle introduced Sticklets, a stick gum version of Chiclets. Later that year, the company brought Black Jack, Beemans, and Clove gum back into production.[20] In 1988, Warner-Lambert acquired Junior Mints, Charleston Chew, Sugar Daddy, among other brands, from RJR Nabisco and integrated them into the American Chicle Group.[26]

Adams

The American Chicle Company was renamed Adams in 1997.[27] Warner-Lambert was acquired by Pfizer in 2000 for $90.2 billion.[28] After a two-year ban on selling the company's gum assets, Cadbury Schweppes purchased Adams in 2002 for $4.9 billion.[29][30][31] Kraft Foods purchased Cadbury in 2010 for $19.6 billion.[32] When Kraft split into two companies in 2012, the Adams gum unit remained under Mondelez International.[33] Chiclets chewing gum was discontinued in 2016, but returned to production 2019.[34]

By 2018, Mondelez sold off the Black Jack, Beemans, and Clove brands.[35] It then sold the remainder of its United States, Canada, and European gum assets to Perfetti Van Melle in 2023.[36][37][38]