Picture this – a world where gum-chewing kids puffed away not on cigarettes, but on the milky white sticks of Black Cat bubblegum, casting spells of innocent mischief! Alert the presses and wax nostalgic, dear readers, for whispers throughout the “Consumer” page on social media, hashtagged with the poignant #WhatConsumersSay, prophesy the impending twilight of this beloved Thai classic. Accompanied by a whimsical illustration of the eponymous gum, the post rippled through the web, gathering lamentations and a wave of shared childhood memories.
True to the murmurings, the veritable descendant of the Black Cat Bubblegum dynasty has decreed the cessation of this 67-year-old enchantment come the close of 2023. Its DNA, woven into rounds of whimsy, resembled a retro world where “smokes” were sold in vibrant red and black cartons, etched with the cryptic silhouette of a midnight feline, ’twas a sight as common as cicadas on a summer evening.
In an age untroubled by today’s clarity on smoking’s perils, children would parade, puffing on their candy “ciggies” before surrendering to an eruption of sweet flavor. And oh! How it did reign supreme from 1970 to 1990, in the halcyon days before convenience stores had the land in a honeyed grip, when the local grocer was a wizard dispensing these affordable treasures.
But as the tides of time roll, so too did the essence of the Black Cat. Morphing with society’s growing frowns upon smoking simulations, the brand honed its image to something more zeitgeisty, less smoky. Alas, today, it finds itself adrift in a sea where every tide is a plethora of competing confections, and its beacon does not shine as brightly in the aisles of convenience stores or near the hallowed gates of schools where vendors peddled this nostalgic novelties.
Let me divulge a sweet-toothed snippet: Tasty Confectionery Limited Partnership, the alchemy lab behind our magical Black Cat, came into existence on the twenty-eighth day of September, 1956, nestled in the bustling province of Samut Sakhon. Seven stakeholders, eight million baht in declared capital, and a journey through the caramelized corridors of Thai commerce!
Crunching numbers can sometimes be as absorbing as chewing gum, wouldn’t you agree? Revelations from our friends at the Department of Business Development show a fiscal dance from 2018 through 2022:
- 2018: Bahts poured in at 34,557,491.71; expenses ebbed ever-so slightly lesser at 33,132,347.10, netting a profit robust enough to buy tonnes of gum at 1,139,935.69 baht!
- 2019: Bit of a sticky wicket, this one, as the losses stuck at 337,898.59 baht.
- 2020: A bounce-back deserving of a bubble-blowing contest – profits puffed to 381,304.64 baht.
- 2021: Who doesn’t love an upward trend? Profits swelled to a pleasing 740,201.37 baht.
- 2022: A nod in affirmation as profits sweetly hover at 729,951.10 baht.
There you have it, fellow gum aficionados – a fiscal fairytale with its twists and turns for Black Cat, but as we gear up to bid adieu to this vestige from our collective childhoods, let’s not forget to store those wrappers, tucked in between the pages of our memory books. For we know, in the sticky fabric of nostalgia, no legend ever truly says goodbye. It simply waits to be unwrapped and cherished anew.
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