Cadbury Schweppes Americas Confectionery opens new Science & Technology Center

The Center, a $40 million investment, will create new products for the Cadbury Schweppes global gum business and its Americas Confectionery region.

07/02/06 Chew on this the next time you pop a piece of gum in your mouth: it takes up to 70 ingredients to make a great tasting piece of chewing gum which means an enormous amount of technology, research and development goes into each one of the 65 billion pieces of gum Cadbury Schweppes Americas Confectionery produces each year.

In its continuous quest to innovate and drive growth, Cadbury Schweppes Americas Confectionery, part of Cadbury Schweppes - the world’s largest confectionery company- opened its new Science & Technology Center (S&T) in Hanover, New Jersey. The Center, a $40 million investment, will create new products for the Cadbury Schweppes global gum business and its Americas Confectionery region.

The Center is home to the worldwide Center of Excellence within Cadbury Schweppes for gum and Halls® and will house facilities for creating and testing new gum and candy creations, packaging laboratories and a dedicated facility for tasting and evaluating new flavors. Leading Cadbury Schweppes confectionery, cough and gum brands include Trident®, Dentyne®, Certs® Bubblicious® and Halls®.

The new S&T facility will be responsible for:

- Creating new technologies for gum and candy development

- Formulating flavors consumers love

- Improving processes to make gum and candy more efficiently

- Developing innovative and fun packaging

Cadbury Schweppes has a long track record of breakthrough innovations across the confectionery category. One of the company’s newest products, Trident Splash, is now hitting store shelves across the U.S.

Trident Splash is bursting with the innovation that is the hallmark of the company’s Science & Technology team. Trident Splash is the first U.S. sugar free gum with a crunchy, candy-coated shell surrounding a liquid center. It comes in Strawberry Lime and Peppermint Vanilla flavors.

The 148,000-square-foot facility is home to approximately 150 colleagues and is completely networked to the other key global Cadbury Schweppes Science and Technology centers in the U.K. and the company’s Beverages center in Connecticut. The S&T facility also sits minutes away from the Parsippany, N.J. regional headquarters of Americas Confectionery and the Cadbury Adams U.S. Confectionery business.

A recent survey by U.S. business unit Cadbury Adams found that chewing gum has become a daily ritual for most Americans and the Center is poised to deliver great new flavors, formats and packaging to gum chewers everywhere. The overall global gum category is growing at approximately seven percent per year. More and more consumers are chewing gum for specific benefits. From freshening breath, to avoiding eating and snacking, to cleaning teeth, there are a host of reasons why people chew gum.

The survey revealed that the bulk of American gum chewers said they chew gum at least two to three times a week, with the afternoon being the preferred gum-chewing time of the day. Ninety-six percent of respondents chew gum to freshen their breath or make their mouths feel fresh. More than two-thirds (68 percent) of respondents say they chew gum to avoid snacking.

Creating new gum flavors and innovations is complex.

Cadbury Schweppes Americas Confectionery "Gumologist" Jessie Kiefer explains, "Formulating gum requires the right balance of flavor, texture and sweeteners that can then be mass produced. Ingredient selection combined with complex taste sensations must come together in one efficient process. We’ve come a long way since the Greeks chewed on resin from the bark of the mastic tree to sweeten their breath."

It begins with a gum base, the foundation on which the entire gum formula is built. Next is creating a flavor profile using a technique called top noting that adds specific flavors to the base flavor for a unique taste. Finally, sweeteners and texture modifiers come together in the gum to make it last long and taste great.

Headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, Cadbury Schweppes Americas Confectionery is one of four regional operating units of Cadbury Schweppes plc—the world’s top confectionery company (and the only confectionery company to span chewing gum, confectionery and chocolate categories), and one of the world’s leading global beverage companies. Operating in 20 countries, Cadbury Schweppes Americas Confectionery develops, manufactures, and markets some of the best-loved chocolate, confectionery, cough and gum brands, including Bazooka®, Beldent®, Bubbaloo®, Bubba’s®, Bubblicious®, Cadbury®, Certs®, Chiclets®, Clorets®, Deemint®, Dentyne®, Halls®, Mantecol®, Sour Patch®, Swedish Fish®, and Trident®.

Cadbury Schweppes also has a strong regional presence in beverages in the Americas and Australia. With origins stretching back over 200 years, today Cadbury Schweppes’ products - which include beverage brands such as Schweppes, Dr Pepper, and Snapple, are enjoyed in almost every country around the world. The Group employs around 50,000 people.

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