Wrigley Case

Wrigley Case

1.

Wrigley is a very competitive company that has been very determined as being one of the world’s leading manufacturers of chewing gum, commanding 36% of the global chewing gum market in 2007.

 It has faced a lot of difficulties over the years but has still been able to expand. Its immediate success began with the production of Juicy Fruit which was most popular chewing gum in North America followed by Wrigley’s spearmint and Doublemint gums.

Wrigley has developed strengths in areas of innovation. Strong R&D capabilities enabled the company to frequently launch new products and introduce variants of existing products.

 Diversifying its product across the globe and to serve varied needs has help strengthen the business in more ways than none. The company had operations in more than 40 countries and distributed its world-famous brands in more than 180 countries

The strength of Wrigley also comes from the team that makes things happen and the character of the company that sets it apart and created competitive advantage.

Being family owned has driven the business to its success.  It has helped to maintain the company’s values and eliminated any form of deceit and selfish desires. Its strong family control has promoted its culture and encouraged efficiency.

Despite all the above strengths, Wrigley’s strong sense of family control limits its exposure to new ideas and improvement in the company.

7.

The possible synergies for Mars in acquiring Wrigley’s would be operating synergies in terms of economies of scale.  This may arise from the merger, allowing the combined firms to become cost efficient and profitable. This would possibly happen if the merged firms eliminated redundant positions, implement layoffs starting with the most expensive top managers and ending with bottom-level employees, who were less expensive but sometimes let go in large numbers.  However, this is not likely to happen because executives employed by Wrigley’s were well protected by “golden parachutes”