History & Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Early Evolution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Global Expansion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Modern Business . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Company Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Recent Efforts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Company DNA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Social Media Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . 17

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Founded by Franklin Clarence Mars and his son, Forrest Edward

Mars.

In 1902, Frank ran a wholesale candy firm in the Minneapolis/St

Paul area but it was not a success.

By 1910, he moved to Seattle to set up again but within a year he

lost everything.

In 1914, his third candy business in Tacoma, Washington went

bankrupt.

He landed back in Minneapolis, where he sunk his last $400 into

yet another candy-making venture, the Mar-O-Bar Co. and hit on a

winner with Victorian Butter Creams.

In 1924, they produced a chocolate bar named Milky Way and their

business grossed a staggering $800,000

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By 1928, Mar-O-Bar Co. was relocated to Chicago and a year after,

they had a much bigger factory crammed with new equipment in

which they could produce twenty million Milky Way bars a year.

In 1930, Frank invented the Snickers bar and in 1932, Three

Musketeers, pushing company sales to $25 million.

Mars was substantially big at this point and the relationship

between father and son eroded, Frank kicked Forrest out and gave

him $50,000 and the foreign rights to Milky Way. Fifteen months

later Frank was dead from a heart attack.

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In 1933, Forrest moved his family to Switzerland and took hourly

jobs on the factory floors of Jean Tobler and then Nestlé to learn for

himself the secrets of Swiss chocolate-making.

Come August 1933, Forrest made a deal with Cadbury’s industrial

sales department to supply him with their chocolate and the first

Mars Bars appeared on the shelves

In 1934, Forrest bought Chapple Brothers, a struggling British dog

food company, the second leg of the future Mars Empire

In 1939, Mars Ltd was Britain’s third-largest chocolate company

behind Cadbury and Rowntree’s

That same year, the Second World War intervened and Forrest

returned to the US

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By 1940, a joint venture between Frank and Hershey’s president’s

son was sealed, creating M&M’s - Mars & Murrie, M&Ms Ltd.

In 1944, Uncle Ben’s Rice was launched with the help of advertising

guru Leo Burnett

By 1954, M&M’s tagline “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands”

was hammered into the nation’s brains by the M&M’s cartoon

characters

By 1956, M&M’s was the best-selling chocolate product in America,

grossing $40 million a year

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UK

The US’ best-sellers, Snickers and M&M’s, were launched in United

Kingdom under the names of Marathon and Treets, and were joined

by Topic, Twix, Spangles, Tunes and Lockets.

In 1979, they launched the two-piece canned pet food and by late

1990’s they switched to pouches.

Western Europe

In 1951, the first Mars Bar hit France followed by imports of dog

and cat food brands in 1959.

In 1961, the West German sales office for chocolate products

opened

In 1993, exports of pet foods in New Zealand had gone so well that

Mars purchased a pet food factory there to ramp up production

Mars is by far the dominant pet food manufacturer in Australia and

New Zealand, with around 50% market share

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Australia/New Zealand

In 1954, Mars signed a deal with MacRobertson’s, Cadbury’s main

competitor in Australia

In 1965, they launched Pal and Whiskas in Australia and build a pet

food factory the next year.

Purchased Masterfoods a local maker of herbs and spices

Eastern Europe

Mars chocolate products appeared in Hungary in 1989

In 1991, food and pet products were added to the distribution

network

A chocolate factory opened in the summer of 1995 for the cost of

$140 million and produced nine different products. A pet food

factory opened the same year.

By 2012, the company had nine factories supplying Russia and the

rest of the CIS.

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China

In 1990, the company opened its first sales office and decided to

focus on M&M’s.

By 1996, M&M’s were not driving enough profit so they switched to

the Dove chocolate bar

By 2005, Snickers and M&M’s took a more prominent position and

Mars was the clear market leader

The company now has four factories in China, two for pet foods and

two for chocolate, supplying the ever-growing Chinese market and

also exporting to other Asian countries

Middle East

In 1998, Mars opened their first chocolate factory in Dubai to

service the entire Middle East

By 2013, a new factory in Saudi Arabia was opened

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Latin America

In 1995, the first factory in Mexico was opened

In 2002, they bought Lucas World, another candy manufacturer

Mars is now market leader in both pet food and confectionery in

Mexico

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By the end of the 1950s, the Chicago plant had been expanded

Forrest bought Thomas’s, a firm that made all manner of pet

accessories: dog leads, fish and budgerigar food amongst them

In 1955, he set up a British drinks vending company, Four Square.

In 1959, they launched Whiskas.

In 1966, Mars bought the Kal Kan firm

In the mid-1970s, Hershey was finally overtaken, whilst in the UK,

Mars would soon be on the verge of overhauling both Cadbury and

Rowntree’s

The US pet business moved to adopt UK recipes and brand names

such as Pedigree and Whiskas.

Mars sponsored the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles and this was a

success in US businesses

Outside the US, Snickers was known as Marathon and M&M’s as

Treets

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Changing brand names that had been around for decades was a

bold and forward-thinking move, but in other areas the business

had become a lot more cautious under the new regime.

In 1982, Mars had passed up the chance to have M&M’s feature in

the film ET

Mars had been offered first refusal on the Cadbury deal but had

declined.

In 1986, they purchased Dove Bar International Inc., makers of a

hand-dipped ice cream bar.

In 1989, Mars Inc. switched track on new product development on

differently flavored brand extensions. The same year their Dove

subsidiary launched ice cream versions of 3Musketeers, Snickers

and Milky Way.

In 1997, Mars purchased Seeds of Change, an organic seed

company.

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The global head office has always been a tiny affair with fewer than

100 staff

There are only six levels of management between the factory floor

and the family members themselves.

In the early 1990s, management experimented with combining the

various product sectors into single organisations by country, but it

was not a success and was quietly abandoned in the larger

markets.

In 2001, Mars created a formal Board of Directors – all family

members together with a small number of outside advisers

The original four divisions - Petcare, Chocolate, Food and Drinks -

have more recently been joined by Wrigley.

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2002

Wrigley’s bid of $12.5 billion

2006

Doane Petcare company, a largely private label company but with

excellent manufacturing and distribution set-up that could be

immediately deployed to improve the Kal Kan operation

2007

Added Nutro Products Inc., a manufacturer of high-nutrition, high-

performance natural dog and cat foods

Mars’ pet foods major product recall

2009

Another major product recall by the quality-obsessed Mars

management

2013

Mars has committed to shipping no chocolate products that exceed

250 calories per portion

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The Five Principles of Mars

Quality

The consumer is our boss, quality is our work and value for money is

our goal.

Responsibility

As individuals, we demand total responsibility from ourselves; as

associates, we support the responsibilities of others.

Mutuality

A mutual benefit is a shared benefit; a shared benefit will endure.

Efficiency

We only use resources to the full, waste nothing and do only what we

can do best.

Freedom

We need freedom to shape our future; we need profit to remain free.

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Mars Inc. has annual sales of over $30 billion, operates 401

factories and offices in 73 countries and employs over 70,000

associates.

The company has eleven brands with annual sales revenues of

over $1 billion (Pedigree $4.7bn, Snickers $3.6bn, M&M’s $3.5bn,

Whiskas $2.8bn, Dove $2.6bn, Orbit $2.5bn, Milky Way/Mars Bar

$2.4bn, Extra $2.2bn, Uncle Ben’s $1.6bn, Royal Canin $1.5bn,

Twix $1.5bn).

Over 90% of company sales come from three categories: Pet Care,

Confectionery and Gum. It is the world’s largest confectionery

company, Snickers and M&M’s are the world’s best-selling

confectionery products.

It is probably fair to say that the business model developed by

Forrest Mars Senior and the brands developed by successors Frank

and Forrest have been resounding successes.

Website: www.mars.com/global/index.aspx LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/mars Facebook: www.facebook.com/Mars Twitter: twitter.com/Marsglobal Instagram: instagram.com/mmschocolate Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/Mars Google+: plus.google.com/112416986288845956470/posts

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