Wrigley is About to Get Sweeter

By Rachelle Bowden in Food on Nov 15, 2004 8:18PM

Looking to extend more of its marketing from gum to candy, Wrigley announced today that it has agreed to buy Life Savers and Altoids from Kraft for $1.48 billion CA$H. The agreement also includes Creme Savers, as well as Trolli gummies, Sugus, and other local and regional brands in the US, Europe, Indonesia, and Thailand.

With the $1.48 billion offer (can we just call it a "billion and a half"?), Wrigley beat out Hershey, Mars, Nestle and Cadbury. But it should be well worth the investment since the Kraft candies generate almost a half million dollars annually. Kraft is blaming competitors' products and that recently popular scapegoat - low-carb diets - for the reason they're candies are getting hammered and why they wanted to sell the brands.

Sidenote: Wrigley's advertising firm is BBDO in Chicago, but Leo Burnett advertises Altoids and FCB in New York does Life Savers. Chicagoist doesn't really care about Life Savers (do they even advertise?) but we totally dig Altoids award-winning advertising campaign and hope that Wrigley keeps it at Burnett.