---
title: "The Road to Empire: Mars' $33 Billion Annual Revenue"
description: "Dove, Snickers, M&M'S, Skittles, Extra, Pedigree, Whiskas... You've certainly heard of these brands, each valued at over $1 billion, but you may not know they all belong to Mars, Inc. It is the world's largest private company, steadfastly refusing to go public since its founding; it is also the world's largest candy manufacturer and chocolate producer. Yet it remains mysterious and low-key, rarely granting media interviews and unwilling to disclose financial statements, even to banks. Since its founding in 1911, how exactly has Mars built its candy empire?"
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published: "2017-12-17"
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# The Road to Empire: Mars' $33 Billion Annual Revenue

> Dove, Snickers, M&M'S, Skittles, Extra, Pedigree, Whiskas... You've certainly heard of these brands, each valued at over $1 billion, but you may not know they all belong to Mars, Inc. It is the world's largest private company, steadfastly refusing to go public since its founding; it is also the world's largest candy manufacturer and chocolate producer. Yet it remains mysterious and low-key, rarely granting media interviews and unwilling to disclose financial statements, even to banks. Since its founding in 1911, how exactly has Mars built its candy empire?

Dove, Snickers, M&M'S, Skittles, Extra, Pedigree, Whiskas... You've certainly heard of these brands, each valued at over $1 billion, but you may not know they all belong to Mars, Inc.
It is the world's largest private company, steadfastly refusing to go public since its founding; it is also the world's largest candy manufacturer and chocolate producer; yet it remains mysterious and low-key, rarely granting media interviews and unwilling to disclose financial statements, even to banks. Since its founding in 1911, how exactly has Mars built its candy empire?
1
## ****Father-Son Discord: Exiled from Home****
**Mars, Inc. started out selling chocolate.**
Founder Frank C. Mars learned to make chocolate from his mother as a child and began selling chocolate for a living at age 19. After marriage, Frank and his wife tried making and selling candy in their home kitchen. Later, Frank ran several candy companies, but all ended in failure. His wife divorced him and took their son, Forrest, to Canada.
After remarrying, in 1911, Frank founded a company called Mar-O-Bar, the predecessor of Mars, producing a candy made from a mixture of caramel, nuts, and chocolate.
But Frank's business still didn't see much improvement until 1923, when Frank was reunited with his son after 13 years apart. The 19-year-old Forrest suggested to his father that they make a portable product from a chocolate malt drink. Frank adopted his son's suggestion, and this product later became Mars' classic product—the "Milky Way bar."
**At the time, candy was not easy to preserve, but because the Milky Way bar had a chocolate coating on the outside, it kept the candy bar fresh; moreover, the candy bar was inexpensive to produce, yet its taste was not inferior to chocolate. The "Milky Way bar" was popular upon launch, and Mars began to make its mark in the candy world.**
**In 1927, Mar-O-Bar was officially renamed Mars, and the factory moved from Minneapolis to the western part of Chicago, where freight costs were relatively lower.** Subsequently, Mars produced Snickers and chocolate bars, and became the second-largest candy manufacturer in the United States at the time.
Behind this prosperity, the father and son were full of contradictions. Having experienced multiple failures before, Frank never imagined that a small chocolate workshop could grow to such a scale, and he began to be content with small gains, enjoying a comfortable life of champagne and caviar; Forrest, on the other hand, was the opposite, constantly urging his father to expand and develop business in Canada.
**After many arguments, Frank finally lost his patience and kicked Forrest out of the house, giving him only $50,000 and the overseas sales rights to the "Milky Way bar."**
2
## ****Starting with $50,000****
In the 1930s, the European chocolate market was far more prosperous than that of the United States, and Forrest set his sights on the European market.
In 1932, he went to England with $50,000 and founded Forrest Mars Food Manufacturing Company; he adapted the "Milky Way bar" recipe to British tastes and launched a British version, naming it the "Mars Bar." As soon as the "Mars Bar" hit the market, sales soared. Within just three years, Forrest's first pot of gold was several times larger than his father's business. By 1939, Forrest's company had become the third-largest candy manufacturer in Britain.
Subsequently, World War II broke out, and the British government began imposing high taxes on foreigners. Foreign businesses withdrew one after another, and Forrest also returned to the United States.
**But with a keen business sense, Forrest discovered opportunities amid the chaos of war.**
**He noticed that soldiers often ate chocolate pieces coated with a thick sugar shell, and military chocolate was one of the standard rations for U.S. troops.** At the time, most of the chocolate issued to U.S. soldiers was produced by Hershey, the world's largest candy manufacturer at the time. These chocolates had very high requirements for heat resistance, because soldiers sometimes operated in tropical or desert areas, and the chocolate bars were kept in pockets close to the body.
Ordinary chocolate bars would melt within minutes, and Hershey's chocolate bars had some heat resistance but greatly compromised taste. So Forrest approached William Murrie, then president of Hershey, and proposed developing a chocolate that wouldn't melt and tasted good. William Murrie readily agreed, contributing 20% of the funding for the joint project and sending his son, Bruce Murrie, to provide R&D technical support at Forrest's company.
**The two companies complemented each other—one provided the hard candy shell, the other provided the chocolate. In 1941, the M&M's chocolate candies with colorful candy shells, jointly developed by both parties, were officially launched. M&M's stands for "Mars and Murrie." During World War II, M&M's were once required to be supplied exclusively to the military.**
Besides supplying the military, M&M's initially did not sell well in the market. To promote the product, **Forrest spent heavily to invite the famous advertising master Bernbach, and the slogan "Melts in your mouth, not in your hand" quickly made M&M's a household name.** Even more than 50 years later, this slogan was rated as "America's number one advertising phrase."
3
## ****The Procter & Gamble of the Food Industry****
**Although M&M's established Forrest's position in the candy industry, his greatest desire was to fully take over and manage his father's Mars company.**
After his father's death, the company's innovation declined. After his father's second wife, Ethel, passed away, she transferred half of Mars' shares to Forrest. It was then that Forrest engaged in a battle for control of the company with other shareholders, ultimately gaining full control of Mars in 1964.
During this period, Forrest never stopped starting new ventures.
After the great success of M&M's, Forrest turned his attention to the processed rice market. At the time, the owner of a rice mill had invented a "parboiled" rice processing method that made the grain more nutritious and had considerable market value.
Forrest believed that by branding this processed rice and selling it under a specific label, they could set a higher price. So he began researching the manufacturing technology for processed rice. **Subsequently, they launched "Uncle Ben's Rice," named after the rice mill owner.**
In 1979, they launched Skittles, which, with its unique advertising and marketing, became another candy sensation worldwide after M&M's.
In addition, Mars also ventured into the pet food industry.
When he was in England, Forrest had bought a dog food factory that produced canned minced meat, specifically for making dog food. At the time, Britain did not have a trend of specialized food for pet dogs and cats; they usually ate human leftovers. Forrest saw a business opportunity, bought the factory, and produced and sold canned pet food, focusing on the concept of nutrition. With no competitors, he quickly became the leader in the British dog food market.
In 1967, Royal Canin was established, which was the first dog food designed specifically for large breeds and puppies.
To this day, Mars' pet care brands include Whiskas, Pedigree, Cesar, and Royal Canin. Currently, one-third of pets worldwide eat Pedigree dog food and Whiskas cat food every day.
**The ever-expanding Mars also didn't forget to buy, buy, buy.**
**In 1986, Mars acquired Dove. After improving the purity and taste of Dove chocolate, they launched new flavors such as milk chocolate and dark chocolate in the 1990s. These chocolates continued the legend of Dove and remain popular to this day.**
Even after Forrest's death in 1999, the new leaders continued his style. In 2008, Mars partnered with Warren Buffett to acquire Wrigley, the largest gum producer in the United States, for $26 billion, surpassing Cadbury, the global candy industry leader, and taking the top spot in the global candy and gum industry.
**To date, Mars has more than 10 international brands with brand value exceeding $1 billion, including Snickers, M&M's, Skittles, Dove, and Extra, and is hailed as the "Procter & Gamble" of the American food industry.**
4
## ****The Success Formula of the Candy Empire****
**"I am not a candy manufacturer; I want to build a candy empire."** Forrest never hid Mars' ambition, and Mars' success is largely attributed to Forrest's foresight and management style.
**1. The Quality Fanatic "Mars Monster"**
Mars employees called Forrest the "Mars Monster," due to his extremely high standards for quality.
He required that the chocolate bean factory floor be thoroughly scrubbed every 45 minutes; each Snickers bar had to have exactly 15 peanuts, no more, no less.
It is said that one night, he suddenly called employees to remove a batch of M&M's from shelves because he had bought a pack of the same batch from a supermarket and found that the "M" on the packaging was not printed clearly enough.
**2. Strict Family Corporate Culture**
Mars is a typical family business, but it has a strict family corporate culture.
After Forrest took full control of Mars, he implemented a thorough transformation of the company. He cut management perks such as dining rooms, French chefs, oak picture frames, art collections, carpets, and dedicated helicopters; he also eliminated fancy job titles for management, did not provide them with secretaries, did not set up large offices, and everyone had to answer their own phones, make their own copies, and pour their own coffee; he also required all employees, including Mars family members, to clock in for work, with a 10% pay deduction for lateness.
**3. Empowering Employees**
Although he was harsh on family members, Forrest delegated authority to employees. Today, people admire Haidilao's employee rules, but in fact, Mars had already done this long ago.
Forrest paid high salaries to employees, made every employee feel important, and gave them full authority in their work, even to employees on the factory production line. Every employee had to know how to maintain the machines, and if a product problem occurred, any employee had the right to stop the production line.
**4. Pioneering a New School of Quirky Advertising**
Most of the advertisements for Mars' international brands are household names, such as Snickers, Dove, Extra, and Skittles. Among them, Skittles, with its "perverse" ads, pioneered a new school of quirky advertising.
Usually, people associate colorful Skittles with childhood, but Mars doesn't think that way. Skittles ads often involve wild imagination, such as melting Skittles down and making a plate of rainbow brain matter; a girl's eyebrows grow Skittles, and her teacher seriously pulls them out and eats them; they also played on the trypophobia meme, where a man, because of his great love for Skittles, turns from skin to hair into densely packed Skittles...
**There is no strangest, only stranger. For over 40 years, Skittles' consistent quirky style has helped it establish a distinctive brand image in consumers' minds.**
5
## ****Life Is Like a Box of Chocolates****
**This company, with annual sales exceeding $33 billion and 72,000 employees worldwide, has its headquarters in a two-story building that can accommodate only 80 people, with no signage at the entrance, only a sign reading "Private Property."**
Like that sign, Mars has still not gone public. The decision-makers believe that only in this way can Mars ensure independence in company management and complete control over profits.
"Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you're gonna get." After a century of ups and downs, Mars has changed three generations of leaders and still maintains upward vitality; and with its insistence on quality and advertising innovation, Mars continues to create new surprises.
Source: China Candy, FMCG Marketing Frontier
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