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Chewing for better results
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August 7, 2001: 2:59 p.m. ET
P&G, Wrigley to develop oral care chewing gum, expanding Crest brand
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NEW YORK (CNNfn) - Consumer products maker Procter & Gamble Co. announced a partnership on Tuesday with chewing gum maker William W. Wrigley Jr. Co. to develop a new line of Crest chewing gums.
Working on the premise that people want to clean their teeth while they chew, P&G has decided to lend its Crest toothpaste brand name to a variety of new product lines, including chewing gum.
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P&G, Wrigley team to develop Crest chewing gum in effort to expand brand. | |
Cincinnati-based P&G said it can compete with rival Colgate-Palmolive (CL: up $0.02 to $52.90, Research, Estimates), the nation's leading toothpaste maker, more effectively by expanding its Crest brand.
The announcement came before the consumer products conglomerate posted its first quarterly loss in eight years after paying for massive job cuts and other efforts to improve its food, fabric-care and cosmetics lines.
Under the terms of the agreement, Chicago-based Wrigley (WWY: down $0.12 to $49.40, Research, Estimates) will license from P&G (PG: down $0.30 to $70.45, Research, Estimates) various trademarks and oral care technologies. Wrigley will ship the gum to supermarkets and convenience stores while Procter will ship it to drugstores.
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P&G said the new product will be geared to time-crunched consumers who want cleaner, whiter teeth but struggle to find the time to brush between meals.
Financial terms were not disclosed, but two people close to the deal estimated it could be worth more than $100 million. The first oral care gum could be on shelves by next year, the companies said.
"We know consumers are interested in being unchained from the sink," Michael Kehoe, P&G's vice president for global oral care, said. 
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