'If You're Chewing Gum, That's Plastic'

'At least 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of plastic chewing gum gets dumped.'
'And because of the way people spit it out, there's no possible way this plastic can be recycled.'

Did you know that chewing gum has plastic?

It's one of the many ways we ingest plastic without even knowing it.

Bengaluru-based Mayank Nagori, 30, decided to do something about it and he, along with his brother Bhuvan, 25, founded Gud Gum, a biodegradable, plant-based chewing gum.

"Studies claim that an average human being consumes one credit card worth of plastic every week from invisible sources. For example, every time we open up a bottle of packaged drinking water, because of the friction between the cap and the bottle, tons of microplastics go into the water. This is an example of an invisible source.

"When you're putting chewing gum in your mouth, you're putting a visible piece of plastic and expecting it not to enter your digestive system," Mayank tells Rediff's Ronjita Kulkarni.

How did you think of making chewing gum that does not contain plastic?

I have a bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the BMS College of Engineering, Bengaluru. Immediately after, I did a master's in food science from the University of Nottingham.

There, we have to read a lot, more than what is required.

That's when I stumbled upon chewing gum and understood that the original chewing gum that the Mayan and Amazonian tribal people chewed is not what we chew today. That was biodegradable and plant-based.

Today, we chew plastic.

Larger companies make mass products with ingredients that are not of the best quality and sell it at a cheaper price so there's a need for smaller brands to make higher quality products.

I wanted to start my own business so I first worked at a few start-ups first.

That's where I realised that it's very difficult to sell beverages or snacks in India. It's very competitive.

Supermarkets are crowded and it's very expensive to stand out.

But chewing gum is, by default, the most premium category because it gets a shelf at the billing counter.

Other companies have to pay to keep their products there but chewing gum, as a product, is stationed there.

So I wouldn't have to spend a lot of money (to get that premium positioning). It made business sense.

It also made ethical sense because I always wanted to build something that I would consume myself -- something that's not high fat, high salt, something I would let my kid eat.

So just because chewing gum gets a place at the billing counter, you went for it?

Yes. It made both business sense and ethical sense. Every gum that Indians have been consuming till date is either coming from Wrigley's or Centerfruit, Center fresh, Orbit, Happydent...

There's not a lot of disruption in that space because the industry is small. Investors don't want to invest in companies that are in the small business category. They would rather invest in larger businesses like beverages, snacks, alcohol...

But an opportunity can be created.

Now, chewing gum is more than just time pass. In India, people chew it only for the flavour and for mouth freshening. But, in the West, people chew gum after every meal because chewing a sugar-free gum will prevent cavity formation in the teeth and they will not have to spend money at the dentist.

In India, we don't mind getting cavities because we can fix that at a cheap cost.

But that narrative has to be changed.

I thought it's a great opportunity for us to enter the industry if we want to be a larger food company over time.

How did you start your company?

We made the chewing gum in our kitchen during the lockdown.

Bhuvan and I were at home with nothing to do. I wanted to build a business; we brainstormed and felt chewing gum made sense.

I had worked with a food start-up so I knew how to develop products.

I ordered the ingredients and we started formulating certain chewing gums, basically working on the recipes.

After that, we gave out 300 sample kits to friends, friends of friends, family, etc, to get feedback.

Many of them told us they could not feel any difference between our chewing gum and regular chewing gum.

People were also willing to spend a higher premium on chewing gum when told that it would have natural ingredients.

We rented out a 1BHK flat and hired two people.

For the first two months, I used to make the chewing gum, someone else would do the packing and another would look after the website.

Bhuvan takes care of the packaging design, the website design and content creation.

We started frugally by taking a loan of Rs 6 lakh from our father to pay the rental deposit, get the initial raw material and build a website.

We grew from there month on month.

We developed the product during the second lockdown, end of 2021.

In March 2022, we launched the product. It's been around three years now.

What were the initial challenges you faced?

People have been chewing artificially-flavoured and coloured chewing gum all this while.

To push them from their regular taste to something natural at a higher premium price was the biggest hurdle.

We focused on profitability from day one but for the first one-and-a-half years, we did not raise any funds.

We did not grow like DTC companies (direct-to-customer) because they burn a lot more money on advertising and that's how their revenue grows. Our revenue grew slowly.

What were the lessons learnt?

We realised that what seems like the best product inside the office might not be the best product in the eyes of a consumer; you have to keep adapting to the feedback and make changes.

A lot of companies are not willing to do so because they're too married to their idea.

But we kept changing and improving our recipes, changing the packaging style, etc, based on the feedback we received from consumers.

We also spoke to potential consumers. That built trust in their minds that, okay, I've spoken to the founder of this company and they seem to be doing a good job. It is not a salesman talking.

It creates a bigger impact when a founder speaks to a consumer and educates them about the product, even if they don't buy it.

Another lesson would be: If you can't sell your product, you cannot build a company.

Making a product is not difficult; the way you market and sell it is what leads to the success or failure of your business.

How did you convince people to try Gud Gum instead of branded chewing gum?

It starts the minute you say, hey, if you're chewing gum, that's plastic. That’s a bold statement and people want to talk about it.

And it's very controversial, right?

That's where the conversation starts and I'm building trust.

Countries like Singapore have banned chewing gum because they mess public property. After cigarette butts, chewing gum is the second most common form of litter.

Before the London Olympics, the British government had to spend I think about five pounds per chewing gum to clean it from their roads.

If it was biodegradable, it would not be there but because it's plastic, it stuck on.

How profitable is Gud Gum today?

We have grown our revenue 2x year on year.

In the first year of business, we closed at about Rs 25 lakh. The next year, we went to Rs 80 lakh and after that, to Rs 1.4 crore (Rs 14 million).

This year, we're looking to close at Rs 4 crore (Rs 40 million). We had a net profit of 10 per cent.

What does the future look like for Gud Gum?

We want to be synonymous with 'chewing gum'.

When I grew up, packaged drinking water was called Bisleri.

Chewing gum was called Boomer.

For the next generation, Gud Gum should be synonymous with chewing gum.

We also want to bring in function into chewing gum. So we're making a caffeinated chewing gum that could help people focus at work or at sports.

We're coming up with a de-stressing chewing gum with some Ayurvedic extracts.

We're coming up with a digestive chewing gum.

We have mothers giving chewing gum to kids because, unlike candy, chewing gum will clean up their teeth, remove any food debris and prevent cavities.

Any advice for new start-ups?

I tell youngsters to not just chase the larger markets; don't make products just to make money.

We are building for the future.

We have to take responsibility for what we build: Make things that are not very addictive. Make things that are actually good for people.

I could have made a lot more money if I sold a product like a Red Bull or a Sting but I chose not to.

People should sell conscious products or conscious services in whatever space they want to because health and money are precious. Don't put your consumer's health at stake just so that you can earn larger profit.

Also, a lot of people just think about ideas but don't execute them.

The difference between the people who made it and the people who didn't is that one step.

If you can make a sample, get some feedback and try to sell your initial first 100 packets, at least you're giving yourself a beginning. Otherwise, you're going to have an idea in your mind and you'll die with regrets.

June 5 is World Environment Day. How is Gud Gum contributing to it?

At least 25 Olympic-sized swimming pools worth of plastic chewing gum gets dumped. And because the way people spit it out, there's no possible way this plastic can be recycled.

Chewing gum can never be recycled unless it is manually scavenged from the piece of paper you put it into.

This single-use plastic is the second most common form of public litter.

When chewing gum is stuck on the road and when vehicles run over it or people walk over it, it sheds microplastics which enter the water table. That one of the ways in which microplastics are found in the human placenta, blood and lungs.

Studies claim that an average human being consumes one credit card worth of plastic every week from invisible sources.

For example, every time we open up a bottle of packaged drinking water, because of the friction between the cap and the bottle, tons of microplastics go into the water. This is an example of an invisible source.

When you're putting chewing gum in your mouth, you're putting a visible piece of plastic and expecting it not to enter your digestive system

Our chewing gum does not have plastic.

Till date, we have replaced at least 2.5 to 3 tons worth of single-use plastic in the form of chewing gum.

Selling in Bengaluru was easy; we sold chewing gum in paper boxes.

But when we sent the gum to Visakhapatnam, Chennai or Goa, they would start sweating. We did mention in the package that it is natural for chewing gum to sweat; that it's still safe to consume. Unfortunately, Indian consumers don't understand that. They think we're giving them something that is spoilt.

We moved to tins but they are difficult to ship and the prices are volatile.

We soon realised that certain problems can only be solved by plastic because of the humidity difference in our country. So we had to take a hard call to use a plastic ziplock.

But we work with recyclers to offset our plastic generation.

Every month we conduct an audit to see how much plastic we put out in the system. We work with recyclers to recycle more than that amount of plastic.

So we're a plastic-positive company.

Will you let your children have Gud Gum when they grow up?

Absolutely!

I have a five-month-old baby. He's going to be my first brand ambassador!