Who owns GUM?
GUM is owned by Sunstar (Switzerland).[1]
This ownership is reported in official statements but has not yet been matched to a regulatory filing.
Evidence: Sunstar Group — Our Story, Sunstar Suisse S.A. Last checked .
Key facts
- Current owner
- Sunstar Suisse S.A. reported
- Owner HQ
- 🇨🇭 Switzerland, Etoy
- Origin
- 🇯🇵 Japan
- Founded
- 1989
- Category
- Personal care & beauty › Oral care › Mouthwash & breath care
- Last verified
- · 3 sources
About GUM
GUM is the oral care brand Sunstar launched in 1989 around the prevention and treatment of periodontal disease, and its line runs across toothpaste, mouthwash, toothbrushes, interdental brushes and the rubber Soft-Picks introduced in 2011. It is sold in more than 100 countries, is used by dental professionals in more than 90 of them, and a mouthwash plant built for it opened in Yamanashi in 2021.
Ownership timeline of GUM
Where GUM sits in Sunstar
Controlling ownership as of . Brands grouped under the entity that owns them; large groups are collapsed.
Open the full Sunstar ownership tree →
See the full Sunstar brand portfolio (8) →
Other brands owned by Sunstar
Sunstar controls 8 brands on Brandtree, 4 of them in personal care & beauty.
Also in personal care & beauty
Founded in the 1980s
- KENKODOJO (1988)
Other brands in mouthwash & breath care, and who owns them
The 18 brands in mouthwash & breath care on Brandtree belong to 10 owners. The largest is Laboratorios KIN, with 6.
| Brand | Owner | Owner based in |
|---|---|---|
| Cariax | Laboratorios KIN | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| Fluor·aid | Dentaid | 🇪🇸 Spain |
| Gingival | Birzeit Pharmaceutical | 🇵🇸 Palestine |
| Botot | Bolton Group | 🇮🇹 Italy |
| Mondahmin | Earth | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Listerine | Kenvue | 🇺🇸 United States |
| NONIO | Lion | 🇯🇵 Japan |
| Eluday | Pierre Fabre | 🇫🇷 France |
About the owner: Sunstar
Sunstar is a privately held company headquartered in Etoy, Switzerland, founded in 1932. Brandtree records 8 brands under its control.
Sunstar is a privately held group run by the Kaneda family, with its global headquarters at Etoy in Switzerland and its Japanese headquarters at Takatsuki near Osaka, where Kunio Kaneda founded it in 1932 selling rubber cement in a portable metal tube for mending bicycle tyres. It moved into oral care in 1946 with toothpaste in a tube, and the Sunstar name was coined as a reminder to brush with the sun in the morning and the stars at night. It employs about 4,000 people in 21 countries and runs a consumer oral care business and an industrial one making adhesives, sealants and motorcycle parts.
🇯🇵 GUM and other Japanese brands
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 437 brands that began in Japan. 21 of them (5%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country, GUM among them.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the parent company of GUM?
The parent company of GUM is Sunstar, a privately held company headquartered in Switzerland.
Is GUM Japanese or Swiss?
GUM originated in Japan in 1989, but it is owned today by Sunstar, which is headquartered in Switzerland. So GUM is a Japanese-origin brand under Swiss ownership.
Is GUM still owned by Sunstar?
Yes. As of 27 September 2026, GUM is still owned by Sunstar. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
- [1] Sunstar Group — Our Story — Sunstar Suisse S.A., Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [2] Sunstar Group — Consumer Oral Care brands — Sunstar Suisse S.A., Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
- [3] Sunstar Group — Professional Oral Care brands — Sunstar Suisse S.A., Official document; retrieved 27 September 2026.
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