WRIGLEY, the chewing gum giant, is launching a range of mints as part of its bid to challenge Cadbury, its confectionary rival, writes John O’Donnell.

The company, which recently failed in its bid to buy Hershey, the American chocolate business, said it still wanted to become the world’s biggest confectionary player. And it hopes to beat Cadbury by making acquisitions of smaller firms.

Gharry Eccles, Wrigley’s managing director for the UK, said: “Hershey was a disappointment but we have moved on. Our search for acquisitions is global and we are not limiting ourselves to any region. We have been growing by 10% a year and our goal is to generate earnings in excess of that.”

Wrigley’s next move will be the launch of its mints using the Extra brand — they arrive on shop shelves across the country at the end of the month.

Wrigley sells nearly all of the gum in Britain — a market that, with 28m consumers, is bigger than instant coffee. Wrigley chose the Extra brand for the launch of the mints because, with 17m consumers, it is a bigger-selling brand than Mars.

Eccles is now looking for new ways to sell his product. He is in talks with restaurant groups to get them to hand out gum rather than mints with customers’ bills. Wrigley has already entered into an agreement with Compass, the catering group, to sell gum through its restaurants.

Wrigley, which has global sales of about €2.4 billion, also wants vending machines in restaurants, clubs and pubs. Eccles said people usually chewed gum when they were going out.

Most gum is still sold in convenience stores but supermarkets have been selling an increasing amount.