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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