Black Jack, Clove & Beeman's: A Gum Tragedy

This summer I have been receiving "candy world gossip"....remember my last blog about Lindt purchasing Russell Stover?
Yesterday my candy sales rep Gary dropped by the store and in our conversation we spoke about whether Black Jack, Clove or Beeman's gum will be manufactured and available this year.
To catch you up, years ago the company which manufactured these 3 gum flavors sold their recipes to Wrigley's.  Wrigley's realized that the popularity of these 3 gum flavors was based on scarcity, so Wrigley's began manufacturing this gum every few years and in limited quantities.
We attempted to let our customers know about this policy and each time the gum was available, we ordered a large quantity for the store.
Recently the 3 flavors started to appear in the U.S. at some Cracker Barrel restaurants.  It turned out that the gum was released in Canada but not in the U.S. and some people were illegally importing it from distributors in Canada.
Reporting this information back to the manufacturer, our distributor was told that the importing was going to be stopped and the company was thinking of never again manufacturing Black Jack, Clove or Beeman's gum.
We hope that doesn't come true.  Right now the manufacturer is unwilling to sell it's recipes to another manufacturer.  The whole thing is up in the air.
If we hear more about this gum tragedy, we will let you know.