Plastic-free chewing gum challenger Milliways is expanding its international reach into further new markets with a launch into French retailers.
The sustainable brand has debuted three new flavours (Spearmint, Strawberry and Cherry), alongside its core Peppermint and Mighty Mint, and a ‘mega-pack’ format tailored for the French market into leading hypermarkets, supermarkets, forecourts and convenience stores.
It is part of a global rollout for the London-headquartered company and follows the major move to launch nationwide in the US at the start of October.
Milliways launched its full range into 400 Sprouts Farmers Market stores and 60 of WH Smith’s US stores, followed by Amazon and its own online shop.
It comes off the back of rapid expansion in the domestic UK market as distribution increased across more than 6,500 retail stores over the past two years.
“The plastic ingredients hidden in most conventional gum is a pressing global issue – it’s chewed, broken down into tiny pieces and ingested, and what’s left is discarded back into our environment as single-use plastic,” said founder Tom Raviv.
“Milliways has made significant progress to change this in the UK, and now we’re bringing that momentum to the US and France.”
Milliways closed a £3m funding round in 2023 to take the fight to the giant names that dominate the chewing gum category.
The brand aired its first-ever TV advert earlier this year thanks to £250k in prize money picked up as a finalist in the Sky Zero Footprint Fund competition run by Sky Media.
The latest category report from The Grocer, published in May, showed Milliways increased retail sales more than sixfold to just less than £700k [NIQ 52 w/e 16 March 2024].
“France, a global trendsetter in food, fashion, and lifestyle, is the perfect next stage for Milliways,” Raviv added.
“As we delved deeper into the market, we saw a clear lack of sustainable and innovative products available to consumers, sparking our excitement for this incredible opportunity. In every market we’ve entered, we’ve seen the same surprising truth: many consumers are unaware that big brand chewing gum contains plastic ingredients.
“Following our growth in the UK and recent launch in the US, we’re thrilled to bring our plastic-free movement to France.”
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