VANOC Signs Wrigley Canada As Official Confectioner For 2010

VANOC organizers "continued stocking their concession shelves Thursday by signing up Wrigley Canada as official confectioner for the 2010 Games," according to Derrick Penner of the VANCOUVER SUN. Wrigley, which includes brands such as Excel, Extra, Hubba Bubba, LifeSavers and Juicy Fruit gum, "joins in the [$3-15M] sponsorship category." Wrigley is the eighth food-and-beverage-related sponsor on VANOC's roster ranging from IOC sponsors Coca-Cola and McDonald's to Vincor Canada, Weston Bakers and Molson, which will be unveiled in January '09. Wrigley as part of the deal receives "exclusive rights to use Canadian Olympic team marks in its marketing around the 2008 Beijing Games and 2012 London Olympics, as well as VANOC's marks for the 2010 event." Earlier this week VANOC signed Hain Celestial Canada,which is a subsidiary of the organic and natural foods supplier Hain Celestial Group, in the official supplier category (VANCOUVER SUN, 7/25). In Vancouver, Damian Inwood reports, "As part of that deal, Wrigley is shipping gum to the Canadian Olympic team in China -- along with a miniature bottle of maple syrup" (Vancouver PROVINCE, 7/25).