A comprehensive background of Mars containing its History and Origins, Early Evolution, Modern Business, Global Expansion, Company Structure, Recent Efforts and Company DNA. As one of the chapters of the book FMCG: The Power of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods by authors Greg Thain and John Bradley. For more details on their success story and that of other leading FMCG companies, check www.fmcgbook.com or Amazon http://amzn.to/1jRyd20.

2. 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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3.  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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4. 4
 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.

5. 5
 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

6. 6
 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

7. 7
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

8. 8
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.

9. 9
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

10. 10
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

11. 11
 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

12. 12
 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.

13. 13
 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.

14. 14
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

15. 15
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.

17. 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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