Company Profile -- MARS

Mars – the name brings in images of all kinds of mouth watering confectionary items including chocolates, candies and snack bars. Although Mars is the household name for chocolates and candies, it also holds a dominant position in several other markets like snack foods, pet care products, main meal foods, electronic automated payment systems and soft drink vending. Mars is one of the most successful and largest family owned businesses in the world.

Mars began in 1911 as the Mar-o-bar Co., a snack food business founded by Frank.C.Mars of Tacoma, Washington. Although it initially started with producing a variety of butter cream candies, soon a number of new products got introduced. These included the famous Snickers and Milky Way Bars. The list kept growing longer as the sales also kept rising in leaps and bounds. The famous M&M’s peanut chocolate candies were introduced.

In 1943 Forrest Mars, son of Frank Mars ventured into the main meal business which included a wide selection of rice products, including whole grain, savory, and boil-in-bag, fast cook, instant, and frozen rice as well as other products. Mars was the rice supplier of the U.S. army and they continued to do so through out World War II. Later on, the rice company came to be known as Uncle Ben’s, one of the most popular global rice brands in the market today. The name was kept after a locally famous rice grower, known for growing high quality rice.

By 1968, Mars, already the largest dog food packer in the world acquired a dog food company named Kal Kan Foods Inc. As Mars kept expanding its pet food business,
they formed the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition to study the nutritional preferences and needs of pet animals. Not only this institute helped in the development of new products, it also became a global authority on pet care and nutrition. Mars is the manufacturer of some of the most famous names in pet food like Pedigree, Whiskas and Sheba.

In1969, Mars entered the electronics business as Mars Electronics International (MEI) began operation in the UK and expanded to US. MEI introduced the electronics vending machine to the world. Gradually MEI expanded its product portfolio to advanced bill technology and advanced payment systems. In 1987, MEI U.S> and MEI UK merged to create the largest international manufacturer of electronic coin machines.

As Mars went on expanding its product lines in the confectionary business,
a historic battle was fought between Hershey’s, the then leader in confectioners, and Mars, the emerging leader. Hershey’s introduced a number of product innovations to stay at the top of the market. In 1988, Hershey’s acquired Cadbury’s Schweppes U.S. division and thus surpassed Mars as the market leader. However, Mars’ fortune was favored by 1991 as it captured the top position riding on the success of its peanut butter M&M’s.

Mars currently is head quartered at McLean, Virginia, USA. The European division is headquartered at Brussels, Belgium. The European division was known as Masterfoods till 2007. In 2007 Mars declared that all divisions will adopt the name Mars. However, Masterfoods continues to be the brand name for food products in Australia.

In a major business move, in 2008, Mars merged with Wrigley, the world’s largest chewing-gum manufacturer and thus created a behemoth of a confectionery.

Mars operates on the 5 principles of quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and freedom. Even though they are a family owned private business, they claim that these 5 principles not only ensure better business results but also maintain business ethics. The most prominent involvement of Mars in social activities is the ‘Cocoa Sustainability’ drive. This consists of a range of activities that ensure sustained future supplies of cocoa and a responsible approach towards its production that benefits both environment and community of the producers. In their own words, “We, at Mars Incorporated, home of some of the world’s most loved confectionery products, are a major user of cocoa. The values by which we have always operated inspire us everyday to seek the most responsible methods of cocoa production, whereby, the entire supply chain shares mutual benefit from the harvesting of this unique and fragile crop.” (www.mars.com)

'Good products plus good people makes a good business' was one of Forrest Mars, Sr.'s guidelines for running the company he founded. It is a formula to which Mars has always adhered.