When William Wrigley settled on gum as the way to make his fortune in Chicago at the end of the 19th Century, he had no idea that the brands he created - Juicy Fruit, Spearmint and Doublemint - would still be growing, more than a century later.
Thirty-eight city councils in the U.K. have proposed that chewing gum makers like Wrigley pay a penny-a-pack national gum tax.
The world's No. 1 gum maker, Wrigley (nyse: WWY - news - people ), introduced its Extra gum in 1984.
Consumers are spending less on discretionary items like chocolate bars and Hershey competes with giants Nestle, Kraft and Mars, which snapped up gum maker Wrigley in 2008, for those scarce dollars.
Wrigley began marketing its Eclipse gum with the magnolia bark extract in June 2008.
For all the competition between the two companies, on the question of chewing gum litter, Wrigley and Cadbury are united.
With 56% of the American gum market, Wrigley would hit antitrust problems.
In 2005, Mr. Foster, a retired engineer for gum-maker Wrigley, moved to Quartzsite from Chicago and successfully ran for mayor in 2010 on a platform of financial transparency.
The soon-to-depart (in a merger) gum vendor William Wrigley Jr.
Wrigley's new antacid gum, Surpass, launched in January, showed that gum coated with calcium carbonate relieves heartburn faster and for longer than tablets (helped by the alkalinity in saliva), but sales are poor.
"When Wrigley launched Alert Energy Caffeine Gum, we took great strides to ensure that the product was formulated, distributed and marketed in a safe and responsible way to consumers 25 years old and over, " Wrigley President Casey Keller said.
They prefer to hold long positions in companies with dependable earnings like Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ) and chewing-gum market leader William Wrigley Jr.
In addition to the dizzying assortment of flavors, Wrigley, the world's largest gum company, found that some customers were deterred by the bulky packets of gum, which are hard to fit into pants pockets and small purses.
Wrigley, maker of 90% of the gum sold in the U.K., is trying to stick it to the gum-tax movement with a cheeky public education campaign.
Alert Energy Caffeine Gum was introduced earlier this month by Wrigley, a division of Mars Inc.
Wrigley's Mr Kehoe says the next target for gum is gingivitis and gum disease.
Wrigley stops new sales and marketing of Alert Energy Caffeine Gum as the Food and Drug Administration investigates the safety of added caffeine.
Of the mooted bidders, Wrigley is keenest on Halls, to cut its reliance on gum.
Wrigley could burst this bubble if it ever produced a biodegradable gum.
Wrigley had claimed that magnolia bark extract, an ingredient in the gum and mints, contributed to the germ-killing capabilities.
Wrigley began trying to reclaim teen customers in 2007 when it developed a new gum brand called 5.
William Wrigley started out selling baking powder, and he thought that including a free pack of chewing gum would help.
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