A motivating story.

Scattered with trials and difficulties, discover the origin of OneGum energizing chewing gums.

The OneGum adventure was launched in 2013 by three high school friends, Ludovic, François and Romain. Young graduates, often tired between sports training, travel and demanding first jobs, the three young men were looking for a quick and portable solution to slack and fatigue.

The three of them develop the miracle recipe: chewing gum enriched with caffeine and vitamins. This product, which they call OneGum, makes it possible to take several doses of energy with you (a packet of chewing gum is equivalent to ten coffees!) in a light and practical format. The icing on the cake: the "chewing-gum" format promotes faster absorption of the active ingredients, which pass directly into the blood through the mucous membranes of the mouth. 
 
After a year of R&D, and while one of the three partners has to go abroad to complete his studies, Ludovic and Romain throw themselves headlong into the adventure and spend months criss-crossing France to promote their product. at service stations. After months of testing, they launched OneGum nationwide in 2015, at Total gas stations. At the same time, the two friends canvass Parisian pharmacies on a daily basis, which are seduced by the effectiveness of the product. Subsequently, the Franprix and Monop' brands were in turn won over by this innovative product.

At the end of 2017, OneGum was consumed by players from several Ligue 1 clubs, and by national selections, a real achievement that was taken up in the media. The two founders are finally starting to get paid and morale is high.

 

Strengthened by this enthusiasm for their product, the two friends signed a national distribution agreement with the largest retailer in France. The holy grail for any food entrepreneur! They launch production accordingly and raise money to be able to commit heavy marketing investments.

 

 

But going from a Parisian presence to a national distribution is proving too brutal for the start-up, and 2018 is a real way of the cross for young entrepreneurs. The sales teams of foreign multinationals present at the cash desk are in fact an obstacle to the presence of products from French VSEs. Not having the means to hire a team of 20 people to cover the national territory, the two young entrepreneurs are forced to forfeit.

 

Of the 2,000 stores planned, only a few hundred actually sell the young brand's chewing gum. The financial losses are very significant. Disgusted by this aborted national launch and the complexity of mass distribution, one of the two partners left the adventure in November 2018...

 

Ludovic, the last remaining founder, is faced with a tough choice: give up and close the door, or fight body and soul to save his business?

 

Ludovic therefore decides to try everything for everything: he takes out a bank loan for which he stands surety and puts the strategy back on track. Now alone at the helm of the company, and convinced for several months already of the need to radically change the approach in order to hope to save OneGum, the young entrepreneur is betting on a new risky strategy. He invests massively in sport, and signs a partnership worth several tens of thousands of euros with the Stade de Reims, newly promoted to Ligue 1.

  
Convinced that consumers are looking for innovative products developed by French start-ups, the young man also decides to launch innovations in a market that is nevertheless dominated by American multinationals. He is also betting on exports, and hires a new Franco-British general manager, Harriet, to carry out these projects.

 

The bet is risky, but the young entrepreneur is right to follow his instinct: 2019 is the year of renewal, marked by numerous media releases around the use of OneGum products by professional athletes and the explosion of sales on the internet. . Harriet's mission is clear: bet everything on sport, accelerate international development and develop new innovative products.

At the end of 2019, turnover doubled compared to the previous year and the start-up launched on the Spanish, Swiss and Norwegian markets with export results representing nearly 40% of sales, against less than 5% in 2018. On the strength of this turnaround, the start-up approaches the future with confidence and plans to continue its international expansion with the launch of new countries.

 

The OneGum family is growing with the arrival of OneMint tablets. Following a successful Ulule campaign in the summer of 2019, the young company is developing a new brand of energizing confectionery: OneMint lozenges, to help optimize every moment of our days without ever being overtaken by fatigue! Available in Franprix stores alongside its "big brother" OneGum, OneMint tablets are proof of the team's constantly renewed energy and inventiveness. And new projects are currently underway...

Today, a whole team is behind these innovative sweets.