American Chicle Company

The American Chicle Company was a chewing gum trust founded by Thomas Adams, Jr., with Edward E. Beeman and Jonathan Primle.^[1]

Beeman's Pepsin Gum from the American Chicle Company

Thomas Adams

Adams Pepsin Tutti Frutti Gum

An advertisement of Adams chewing gum

Thomas Adams (May 4, 1818 – February 7, 1905) was a 19th-century American scientist and inventor who is regarded as a founder of the chewing gum industry. Adams conceived the idea while working as a secretary to former Mexican leader Antonio López de Santa Anna, who chewed a natural gum called chicle. Adams first tried to formulate the gum into a rubber which was suitable for making tires. When that didn't work, he turned the chicle into a chewing gum called New York Chewing Gum.^[2][3][4][5] Adams created his first batch of flavorless chicle balls, named Adams New York Gum No. 1, in 1859, and they sold out quickly.^[6][7]

In 1870, Adams created the first flavored gum, black licorice, which he named Black Jack. He sold it from a warehouse on Front Street.^[4] In 1871, Adams patented the first chewing gum making machine.^[8] In 1888, his company opened a factory on Sands Street. His Tutti-Frutti gum was also one of the first to be sold in vending machines.^[9] Adams retired from the business in 1898 and his son Thomas Jr. took over.^[2][10]

Company history

American Chicle Company

Two women operating gum-wrapping machine at the American Chicle Company Plant in Brooklyn, New York, 1923

The American Chicle Company was incorporated in Trenton, New Jersey, on June 2, 1899.^[1] 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.^[11][12] The corporation operated factories and gum forests in Yucatan.^[13] William J. White served as the company's first president and Thomas Adams Jr. Was the first chairman.^[14][9]

In 1914, the company acquired Chiclets from the Fleer Chewing Gum Company of Philadelphia.^[9] 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.^[4] The building could house over 500 employees and produced five million packages of chewing gum per day.^[9] For decades, the building's Dentyne and Chiclet sign became a landmark for travelers entering Long Island.^[18] By 1935, American Chicle had 15% of the North American gum market, behind the William Wrigley Jr. Company and Beech-Nut Packing Company.^[9]

American Chicle utilized Dancer Fitzgerald Sample in 1950 to promote its products via radio, newspapers, and television.^[19]

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.^[20] 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.^[21] 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.^[22][23] In 1976, Bubblicious was released to compete against Bubble Yum.^[24]

The company's Long Island City factory was shut down at the end of 1981.^[18] Gum-making operations were moved to facilities in Anaheim, California and Rockford, Illinois.^[23] 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.^[21] 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 million.^[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]

Products

• Adams Sour^[39]
• Beemans
• Black Jack
• Bubblicious
• Certs^[40]
• Chewels^[21]
• Chiclets
• Clove
• Clorets
• Dentyne
• Freshen-Up^[41]
• Trident

See also

• American Chicle Company Building, New Orleans
• Charles Ranlett Flint