How Mars Stayed Private While Building a Candy Empire
Mars owns Snickers, M&Ms, Twix, Skittles, Wrigley, Pedigree, Whiskas, Uncle Ben's, and Dove chocolate. It does all of this without a single public shareholder. Here is the story of the world's largest private food company.
Mars, Incorporated is the world's largest privately held food company. Its portfolio includes some of the most recognised confectionery brands on earth: Snickers, M&Ms, Milky Way, Twix, Skittles, Starburst, Wrigley's gum, Orbit, Extra, and Dove chocolate. Beyond candy, Mars owns the world's largest pet care business, with Pedigree, Whiskas, Royal Canin, Iams, Eukanuba, and Nutro. Its food brands include Ben's Original (formerly Uncle Ben's), Dolmio pasta sauces, and Seeds of Change organic products.
Mars, Incorporated generated estimated revenue of approximately $47 billion in 2024. It employs approximately 150,000 people in more than 80 countries. It has never issued public shares, never had an IPO, and remains entirely owned by the Mars family across its fourth and fifth generations. This combination of enormous scale and complete privacy makes Mars one of the most unusual companies in the world.
This post covers how the company grew from a small candy manufacturer in Tacoma, Washington into a global empire, why it has remained private, and what the current portfolio looks like.
Frank Mars and the First Candy Bar
Franklin Clarence Mars, known as Frank, founded his first candy company in Tacoma, Washington, in 1911. The early business was modest, making cream-centred chocolates sold to local candy shops. Frank Mars had a talent for product development but repeatedly struggled with the financial management of his early ventures, going bankrupt at least twice before the business that would eventually become Mars, Incorporated took root.
In 1920, Frank Mars founded the Mar-O-Bar Company in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company found commercial traction with the Milky Way bar, launched in 1923. The Milky Way combined chocolate nougat, caramel, and a milk chocolate coating. It was the first commercially successful bar to combine these elements at a price accessible to working-class consumers. The bar generated $800,000 in sales in its first year and over $20 million by its third, making it the best-selling candy bar in the United States.
Frank relocated the business to Chicago in 1929 and renamed it Mars Candy Company. Subsequent launches cemented the portfolio: Snickers in 1930 (named after the Mars family's favourite horse), 3 Musketeers in 1932, and Milky Way Dark in 1936.
Forrest Mars: Expansion and the M&M
Frank Mars's son Forrest E. Mars Sr. had a complicated relationship with his father. After a falling-out, Forrest left the family business in the early 1930s and moved to Europe, where he built Mars Limited in the United Kingdom, introducing the Mars Bar (a variant of the Milky Way with a different formulation) and Bounty. He also observed the Polo mint business and the emerging pet food market.
Forrest returned to the United States and founded a separate food company, Food Manufacturers Inc., in Newark, New Jersey. During the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s, Forrest observed soldiers eating small chocolate pellets with candy shells that resisted melting in the heat. He recognised the commercial application and, partnering with Bruce Murrie (son of a Hershey executive), developed M&Ms, launched in 1941. The name stands for Mars and Murrie.
M&Ms were initially sold exclusively to the US military during World War II because the candy-coated shell made them resistant to heat, practical for inclusion in soldier rations. Post-war, they became widely available to civilians and grew into one of the most successful confectionery products in history.
After Frank Mars died in 1934, the company passed through a period of family dispute. Forrest eventually bought out his co-investors, reunited the American and British Mars businesses, and merged them into Mars, Incorporated in 1964. He served as co-CEO alongside his sons Forrest Jr. and John until 1973.
The Wrigley Acquisition: Gum at Any Scale
In 2008, Mars, Incorporated completed the acquisition of the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company for approximately $23 billion, financed in part by a $4.4 billion investment from Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Wrigley was the world's largest chewing gum manufacturer, with brands including Wrigley's Spearmint, Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, Orbit, Extra, Eclipse, and Altoids.
The Wrigley acquisition was the largest in Mars's history and made Mars the world's largest confectionery company by revenue, overtaking Nestlé, Hershey, and Cadbury/Kraft.
After the acquisition, Mars retained the Wrigley brands and integrated them into its global confectionery operation. Wrigley's gum brands remain among the world's most widely distributed confectionery products.
Mars Petcare: Building the World's Largest Pet Food Business
Mars entered the pet food category in 1935 with the acquisition of Chappel Brothers, a British pet food manufacturer. The US pet food business was established in 1936. The Pedigree dog food brand was launched in 1957, and Whiskas cat food (originally Kal Kan) followed.
Mars has built Petcare into the largest division of the company by revenue through a combination of organic brand development and strategic acquisition:
Royal Canin (2001): Acquired the French premium pet nutrition brand for approximately €500 million. Royal Canin produces breed-specific and health-condition-specific pet foods sold primarily through veterinarians and specialty pet stores. It has become one of Mars Petcare's most valuable assets.
Iams and Eukanuba (2014): Acquired from Procter & Gamble for approximately $2.9 billion. The addition of Iams and Eukanuba complemented Royal Canin in the premium segment and gave Mars strong distribution in mainstream grocery channels.
VCA Inc. (2017): Acquired for approximately $9.1 billion. VCA operates approximately 1,000 veterinary clinics and animal hospitals across the United States and Canada, representing a major expansion from product sales into services.
Banfield Pet Hospital: Mars also owns Banfield, the largest veterinary practice in the United States, which operates hospital locations inside PetSmart stores.
The combination of pet food brands from mainstream (Pedigree, Whiskas) through premium (Royal Canin, Iams) and veterinary services (VCA, Banfield) makes Mars Petcare by far the largest and most vertically integrated pet health company in the world.
The Uncle Ben's Rebrand and Social Responsibility
Mars's food division operates Ben's Original (formerly Uncle Ben's), one of the most widely sold rice brands in the United States and internationally. The brand was renamed from Uncle Ben's to Ben's Original in 2020 after Mars acknowledged that the brand's imagery, featuring a Black man in a bow tie, perpetuated racial stereotypes rooted in the Jim Crow era. Mars invested $2 million in community programmes for communities of colour as part of the rebrand commitment.
Why Mars Has Stayed Private
The Mars family's decision to maintain private ownership across four generations is exceptional among companies of this scale. The reasons are largely cultural and structural.
Frank and Forrest Mars built a corporate culture of privacy and independence. The company has never needed public capital because it generates sufficient cash from operations to fund its own growth. When the Wrigley acquisition required external financing, Mars structured it through bank debt and a temporary investment from Berkshire Hathaway rather than a public share offering.
Private ownership provides Mars with freedom from quarterly earnings pressure that constrains publicly traded food companies. The company can invest in long-term brand building, reformulation for health and nutrition, and sustainability initiatives without needing to justify each expenditure to public market investors.
The Mars family has maintained governance through family councils and a non-family professional management structure, with the Mars family holding board seats and major strategic decisions being family-led while day-to-day operations are conducted by professional executives. Poul Weihrauch has served as Global President and CEO since 2022.
Mars Today: Key Numbers
- Estimated revenue (2024): approximately $47 billion
- Employees: approximately 150,000
- Headquarters: McLean, Virginia, USA
- Divisions: Confectionery (Mars Wrigley), Petcare (Mars Petcare), Food (Ben's Original, Dolmio, Seeds of Change), and Health and Nutrition (Kind bars, acquired 2020)
Explore Related Content
- Mars, Inc. - Full company profile and brand index
- Nestlé - Primary competitor in confectionery and pet food
- Mondelez International - Competitor in confectionery with Cadbury, Oreo
- Hershey - US confectionery competitor
- How Nestlé Went From Baby Milk to Global Empire - Related brand history post
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Sources
1. Mars, Incorporated Official Website — https://www.mars.com 2. Mars Corporate History — https://www.mars.com/about/history 3. Forbes: Mars family wealth and company profile — https://www.forbes.com 4. Wikidata: Mars, Incorporated — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q220352 5. Reuters: Wrigley acquisition 2008 — https://www.reuters.com 6. Bloomberg: Mars Petcare and VCA acquisition — https://www.bloomberg.com
All brand ownership data verified through WhoBrands.com research. Last verified: March 2026.
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