Mars, Incorporated – American multinational manufacturer

Mars, Incorporated is one of the largest food companies in the world. Mars is known for its famous brands--such as Snickers, Milky Way, M&M's, Kal Kan, Whiskas, and Uncle Ben's Rice. Mars began in 1911 as the Mar-O-Bar Company, a snack food business founded by Franklin Clarence Mars of Tacoma, Washington.

Frank Mars made a variety of butter cream candy in his home. Frank Mars, whose mother taught him to hand dip candy, sold candy by age 19. The Mars Candy Factory he started in 1911 with Ethel V. Mars, his second wife, in Tacoma, Washington. Quality and value were the foundations of his first candy factory, which employed 125 people. Frank C. Mars relocates to Minneapolis and finds room to grow. He starts a basket candies business, The Nougat House.

In 1922, Frank introduces the MAR-O-BAR® to his candy range. Known as the MAR-O-BAR Company, Minneapolis, the company is doing business of less than $100,000 per year.

Mars changed his company’s name to Mars Candies in 1926. With the rapid growth of the company, Mars sought larger quarters and built a new plant in suburban Chicago in 1928. Here they introduced products like Snickers Bar, Mars Almond Bar which would go on to become all-season favorites. Even during the Great Depression their sales did not stall but kept increasing as the years went by.

Frank Mars hired his son Forrest E. Mars to work in the candy operation after his graduation from Yale. He ordered his son to start his own business abroad. In 1932, Forrest started Mars Limited in the United Kingdom, and launched the Mars bar.

In 1940 Forrest Mars returned to the United States and founded M&M Limited in Newark, New Jersey, to manufacture chocolate candies in a sugar shell. M&M® was named for the last names of Forrest Mars and Bruce Murrie. Bruce, the son of Hershey executive William Murray, agreed to provide chocolate, sugar, technology and some capital. The first M&M’s® were produced in 1914, packaged in a paper tube to prevent melting in warm weather.

In 1967 Forrest merged his business with the Mars Company owned by his father and took over operation of the new company. Soon they began by opening manufacturing plants in Australia, Belgium, German, Netherlands and U.K. Now Mars, Incorporated began trying its hand producing different products like pasta, spaghetti sauce, dog food, etc.

In 1986, Mars enters frozen snack business with purchase of Dove International. The Dove Bar, a hand-dipped ice cream bar with a thick chocolate coating, was created in 1956 by Leo Stefanos.
Mars, Incorporated – American multinational manufacturer