History of Mars, Inc.

The development history of Mars has two main axes, one is innovation, and the other is spreading successful innovation experience to all parts of the world. These two main axes established the essence of the company's operations to this day.

Mars, Inc. was founded by Frank Mars in 1923, and had experienced many failures before that. At the time, it was named "Mar-O-Bar" Company. What was initially produced was a candy of the same name, made from a mixture of caramel, nuts and chocolate, and another mixture of butter and milkfat called "Victorian Butter Cream". In 1924, Frank Mars chanced upon his son Forrest, whom he had not seen since his divorce from his first wife, Ethel. Forrest Mars himself said that he proposed to his father the idea of ??making a chocolate malt drink portable, which later became the Milky Way Bar. This new chocolate product was very popular when it was first launched. At that time, candies were not easy to preserve, and this product was covered with chocolate, so that the candy bar could maintain its freshness; and the manufacturing cost of the candy bar was relatively low, but it was easy to eat. It tastes as good as chocolate. The launch of this product provided a considerable injection of funds for the company's initial sprint.

By 1927, the company name was changed to Mars, Inc., and the factory was moved to the west side of Chicago because shipping costs there were only half that of Minneapolis. The factory was built on a site that was originally a golf course. Frank Mars turned the factory into a place that can be visited. It looks very harmonious with the nearby high-end residential areas. It does not look like a factory at all from the appearance. The factory used automated equipment, which was very advanced technology at the time. In 1930, Frank Mars developed the Snickers bar, and in 1932, he launched the 3 Musketeers bar. This new product made Mars the second largest candy manufacturer in the United States, second only to Hershey’s.

Perhaps because of the many previous failures, Frank Mars was quite satisfied with the company's achievements, but his son Forrester wanted to expand and often urged his father to expand the scale of his business. However, Forrester's interventionist attitude and his constant urging his father to develop business in Canada made his father Frank very dissatisfied and eventually expelled him from the company. Frank Mars himself died one year and three months later, and the company was taken over by his second wife (also named Ethel) and their daughter.

With US$50,000 and the overseas sales rights of "Galaxy" given by his father, Forrest went to Europe. With a keen interest in the chocolate industry, he studied with many masters in Europe, such as working in the factories of Jean Tobler and Henri Nestlé. By 1933, he went to England to launch the Galaxy Stick. At that time, the market was already monopolized by two major manufacturers, Cadbury Brothers Ltd. and Rowntree & Co.. In view of this, he scaled back his original plan to build a large factory and started with a small factory instead. He invested all his wealth and efforts in the company, so that his father-in-law had to take his wife and children back to the United States to support them. Forrest modified the flavor of "Galaxy" to suit British tastes, and even narcissistically marketed it as a Mars bar. Sales of Mars bars took off, and even though Forrester Mars' later attempts to launch a new candy bar failed, the company was still successful in the UK.

Since Mars Bars had become so popular, Forrest Mars turned its attention to something else. In 1934, he bought Chappel Bros., a British dog food factory that produced canned ground meat. Special food for pet dogs and cats was not popular at the time, and they usually ate only human scraps. Forest Mars saw a business opportunity from this, and he sold Chappie's canned food, with the main concept being that it was rich in nutrients. With no competitors, he quickly became the market leader.

By 1939, Mars Ltd. had become the third largest confectionary manufacturer in the UK.

Forrester also established a factory in Brussels to be responsible for the sales of Mars Bars throughout Europe. However, due to the outbreak of World War II, the British government began to tax foreigners, so he was forced to give up everything. However, he had an idea at that time, which later evolved into M&Ms chocolates. At the same time, when he returned to the United States, he began a cooperative relationship with Hershey.

Forrest Mars convinced William Murrie, Milton Hershey's right-hand man, to develop a chocolate that would not melt. He himself had seen this chocolate during the Spanish Civil War and was quite impressed. Mars invested 80% of this investment, while Mori contributed the remaining 20%, plus chocolate-making technology. Maury's son Bruce was sent to Mars to implement the investment plan. The product launched in 1941 was M&Ms, and the name represented Mars and Murrie. However, this cooperation soon changed, because Bruce Murray found that Forrest Mars was a difficult person to do things with, so soon after, he sold all his shares to Forrest. Today, there is no mention of Hershey's help in developing M&Ms on the Mars or M&Ms websites.

This chocolate product is first targeted at American soldiers because they are resistant to high temperatures and not easy to melt. While the idea was great, sales weren't great at first. It's still making money, but not nearly as much as Snickers. So in 1950, Forrest Mars hired an advertising agency to conduct a fairly careful study of M&Ms sales. Forrester can be said to be the originator of using market research as a marketing tool. He was the first person to do this in the candy industry, and it proved to be quite successful. The study found that M&Ms are very attractive to children, but children have little money. So the company turned to adults. The advertising agency came up with the famous M&Ms slogan: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands." This was attractive to parents because it , the child will not get dirty everywhere. The product quickly became the most popular candy in 1956 when television commercials were inserted into highly rated shows such as The Mickey Mouse Club.

After the sales of M&Ms achieved good results, Forrest Mars started another new business because he saw a new processing method emerging in the processed rice market, which seemed to have great market potential. The owner of a rice mill has invented a "parboiling" process that makes the grain more nutritious. Forrest believed that by selling this processed rice under a specific brand, the price could be set higher. This idea was quite avant-garde at the time. However, he still embarked on this project and began to study the manufacturing technology of processing rice. Finally, he named the rice “Uncle Ben’s Rice” after the owner of the rice mill. In 1999, this rice product brought about US$400 million in revenue to Mars Enterprises.

Although Forrest Mars has performed extremely well so far, acquiring his father's company is the biggest challenge he faces. He believed that his father's company should legally belong to him because he invented the Galaxy Rod and it was he who suggested that his father set up the Chicago factory. Under the control of Frank Mars' second wife, Ethel, and their daughter, Patricia, the company lacked innovation. After the death of Ethel Mars, half of the shares were transferred to Forrester, and due to this inheritance, he and the "illegitimate son" William Kruppenbacher (William Kruppenbacher), also the half-brother of Ethel Mars brothers, engaged in a battle for control of the company. Forrest Mars vowed to modernize factory technology and introduced machine-made candy technology in 1953. By 1959, thanks to the introduction of Forrest Mars, Mars became the world's number one candy-coated bar manufacturer. However, Forrester still wanted to take full control of the company.

In 1959, when Kubenbach retired, Patricia Mars' husband, James Fleming, was appointed president and CEO. Under his management, product quality plummeted as he skimped on expensive ingredients, such as peanuts and chocolate, and the company's profits worsened. Forrest Mars finally persuaded Patricia to transfer the shares to him, thus receiving 80% of the shares, and he offered to put his company under Mars in exchange. He then convinced the remaining shareholders to sell their shares to him, giving him full control of Mars. In December 1964, Forrest Mars finally became chairman, president and CEO of Mars Incorporated.

After taking full control of the company, Forrest Mars made drastic changes to the company's structure in accordance with his management style. He stripped the company of unimportant items: the executive dining room, the French cook, the oak paneling, the art collection, the carpets, the stained glass and the dedicated helicopter. He raised employees' salaries by 30%, replaced annual allowances with bonuses, and gave each employee a time card. Such drastic changes also angered some employees. But quality control improved, and James Friedman's cost-cutting measures were reversed. Forrester's next step is to become self-sufficient by producing his own chocolate. He believed in controlling every aspect of the production process, and to this day, Mars has not outsourced any part of the production process.

After Forrest Mars took full control of the company, he carried out many drastic reforms, but his time in power was only 9 years. In 1973, at the age of 69, he retired and handed over the business to his sons, Forrest Jr. and John, and his daughter, Jacqueline. Through their efforts, Mars, Inc. has become a truly global enterprise. Although he has handed over the baton, Forrest Mars continues to criticize and coach the performance of his children and closely monitors the company's operations. Therefore, the two Mars brothers monitor the company more closely than when Forrest Mars was in office.