The Mars story begins with Frank Mars, born in 1883 in Minnesota. Stricken with polio as a boy, he spent long hours in the kitchen watching his mother make candy, and a lifelong passion took root. As an adult he tried again and again to build a candy business, and failed several times, going broke more than once. His first marriage also ended, and his son Forrest was sent to live with his grandparents in Canada.
Frank finally found success in Minneapolis in the early 1920s. In 1923 he introduced the Milky Way bar, inspired by the popular malted milkshake, and it was a hit. He moved the company to Chicago and followed with Snickers, named after a family horse, and 3 Musketeers.
Forrest Mars later joined his father’s business but clashed with him over how to run it. In the early 1930s, Frank gave Forrest money and the foreign rights to Milky Way and sent him off. Forrest moved to England, built his own Mars bar business from a small factory, and proved to be a relentless, demanding builder. Back in America, he partnered with Bruce Murrie, son of Hershey’s president William Murrie, to create M&M’s in 1941. The two M’s stand for Mars and Murrie.
Forrest eventually took control of the family company and expanded it into rice, pet food, and more. Mars remains privately owned by the family and is famously secretive. Their story is told in Joël Glenn Brenner’s book The Emperors of Chocolate.
The Mars family’s story is covered in Deeply Driven Episode #6.
Source Book
The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars
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Inspiration
After listening to the Acquired Podcast episode on Mars Inc., I decided to pick up the book The Emperors of Chocolate. I would highly recommend giving this episode a listen.
