IPL 2009

The world's biggest gum company Wrigley today announced its sponsorship tie-up with all the eight franchise teams of the Indian Premier League (IPL) for the second edition of the T20 tournament starting in South Africa from April 18.

"Wrigley has entered into separate sponsorship agreements with the eight IPL franchise teams. Our sugar free brand 'Orbit' would be the official 'gum sponsor' of all the teams and 'Boomer' would be the official bubble gum sponsor," Wrigley India Pvt Ltd MD Gautam Sharma told reporters here.

He said the deals would be complimented by various promotional and advertising initiatives including special contests and prizes, fan trips to South Africa, electronic and print media campaigns and so on.

"We hope it will be a win-win partnership for both Wrigley and the IPL franchise teams. We expect our brands, which are already popular, to be further liked by the consumer following this," Sharma said.

Wrigley has a portfolio of eight brands in India including Boomer, Orbit, Doublemint and Juicy Fruit and claims a market share of over 50 per cent in the estimated Rs 1,000 crore Indian chewing gum market.

"We sell 10 million pieces of gum every day and have a presence in 1.2 million retail stores across 2,000 towns and cities in India. The IPL initiative would further boost reach," Sharma added.

Sharma said Wrigley is also planning other initiatives in the months to come, starting with a campaign featuring Orbit brand ambassador and Bollywood star Deepika Padukone, but refused to reveal further details.Asked about plans for enhancing its portfolio in India, he said: "We keep introducing products all the time. We will have some in future also."

Regarding the gum market, Sharma said the segment was growing at 20 per cent annually till the onset of the current slowdown "Now it has slowed a bit but it is still between 17 and 20 per cent," he added.