Many people can recognize popular brand-name candies that fill grocery aisles, but many of them do not know that a lot of that candy comes from the Mars Chocolate Company. Mars has been around for several decades and their candy is famous all over the world.
History
Mars is unlike many modern companies because, as of early 2009, it is completely family owned. The business started with Frank C. Mars, who experimented with candy at a young age. Those experiments turned into the successful release of the Milky Way bar in 1923. The Mars Company quickly expanded and became one of the most popular candy companies in the world. A British branch named Mars Limited opened in the U.K. and provided many of the original Mars candies, along with European creations like the Tunes candy.
Types
Along with the Milky Way, the Mars Company has created some of the most popular candies. This includes M&Ms, 3 Musketeers, Kudos, the Mars Bar, Snickers, Skittles, Starburst and Twix. The company's biggest rival is the Hershey Chocolate Company, which releases candy like Hershey Kisses, Reese's Cups and the Hershey Bar.
Geography
The Mars Chocolate Company's main headquarters is located near Chicago, Illinois, with other manufacturing plants located all over the United States. Some of these locations include Waco, Texas, Cleveland, Tennessee, Columbus, Ohio, Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania and Hackettstown, New Jersey. Based out of Ontario, the Mars Canada Inc. company provides all of the manufacturing for that country.
Misconceptions
Many people only know Mars as a candy-making company, but they are also successful in other products as well. One of their biggest products is dry food. The company owns the Pedigree dog brand and also distributes a wide range of other dog and cat foods. Mars also makes snack foods like Combos as well as pasta packages.
Considerations
The company has a reputation for being very private and outside of their 40,000 or so employees, very little people have seen the actual process that goes into their chocolate making. One of the most private things is the process of printing the M on every M&M.
