Cumulative sales of Lotte chewing gum hit .36 biillion over 49 years

The cumulative sales of Lotte chewing gum products that have been sold for 49 years have surpassed 4 trillion won (3.36 billion U.S. dollars).

Lotte Confectionary said on Monday that the cumulative sales of Lotte gum have exceeded 4.05 trillion won (3.40 billion dollars) as of last month since its inception in 1967.

According to Lotte Confectionary, when translated into volume of its flagship chewing gum product "Juicy Fresh," its combined sales for the 49 years amount to 30 billion packs. If the packs containing nine pieces of gum are lined up, they amount to 13.2 million kilometers, or a distance equivalent to 330 circumnavigations of the earth. When calculated by individual piece, they amount to about 200 billion pieces, which translate into 27 each for the entire global population of 7.35 billion.

Lotte Group, which ranks fifth among the Korean conglomerates by assets, debuted when Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho established Lotte Confectionary and started selling chewing gums. Lotte Confectionary introduced in 1972 the "trio" of chewing gums, namely Juice Fresh, Fresh Mint and Spearmint, thus emerging as the leader in the chewing gum market. Since then, the company established Lotte Hotel (1973), Lotte Corporation (1974), and Lotte Shopping (1979), to become a giant retailer of today.

The product that drove Lotte gum’s growth in the 2000s was Xylitol, which is known to be effective in cavity prevention. When the product’s popularity reached the peak in 2002, its sales alone hit 180 billion won (151 million dollars) and Lotte gum’s total sales reached 245 billion won (206 million dollars). Currently, Lotte gum posts about 150 billion won (126 million dollars) in combined sales per year, which accounts for 80 percent of the domestic chewing gum market.

한우신기자 hanwshin@donga.com