Mars family. The history of Mars, or how the empire of sweets was formed. How it all began

Mars is the history of the largest private company. Mars is one of the most mysterious companies in the American market. It is one of the few private companies in which family members play key roles.

Mars has revenue in the billions of dollars, it owns more than 10 brands, around each of them you can easily build a separate business.

Mars was and remains a private company from the beginning. Its owners never wanted to make a fuss about their names, and did not express a desire to show off on the cover of Forbes. This, in turn, gave rise to many rumors about the company.

Some claim that Forrest Mars, the owner and CEO of the company, started every working day by walking around the production and personally trying samples of products, including pet food!

Let's slightly open the veil of mystery over this company and get to know its founders better.

The history of Mars goes back to the 19th century. The founder of the "chocolate empire" Frank Mars (Franck C. Mars, 1883-1934) was born in 1883 into a poor family, and at the age of nineteen he began to earn money selling sweets on the street. But by the age of 21, he was tired of working "for someone else's uncle", and together with his wife he organized his own business - a modest confectionery. The entire assortment offered to customers was products of the culinary creativity of Mrs. Mars, and the window of their home kitchen served as a showcase and counter. Nevertheless, the owner of the family business already then dreamed of more - he wanted to fill up all of America with his confectionery.

Frank Mars' dream came true in the 1920s. A beautiful legend (one of its interpretations) says that during one of the trips with his son to the store, the owner of the confectionery had an idea to make chocolate in a wrapper. Little Forrest Mars asked me to buy him chocolate, and in those days it was sold by weight, having received a treat, it was all dirty. It was then that Frank Mars thought that millions of parents would be more willing to buy chocolate for their children if these small chocolates were wrapped in foil. Thus began (according to legend) the Empire of Mars.

In Minneapolis, Mars registered the Milky Way trademark, and with it a new company, Mar-O-Bar, soon renamed Mars, Inc. The success of the chocolate bar, which was introduced in 1923, was so resounding that a few years later the Milky Way bar was unrivaled in the confectionery market. Thanks to rapidly growing sales, the company increased its staff by an order of magnitude and opened its own factory in the suburbs of Chicago, where the whole family moved. It was there that the new hits of Mars were born - Almond Bar chocolate bar with almonds, as well as three-in-one bars - Musketeers and now known all over the world Snickers.

In 1934, the founder of the company Frank Mars, barely exchanging the sixth decade, died of acute heart and kidney failure. By that time, his business had grown into a large company with a turnover of about $ 30 million. The only thing that overshadowed the last days of Frank Mars was a spat with his son Forrest. He flatly refused to participate in the family business and, having moved to England, founded his own pet food business there. The now famous Whiskas and Pedigrees were invented by him when he was working in England.

By the end of his life, the founding father of Mars, Frank Mars, in addition to his “chocolate business”, also became interested in breeding racehorses. Unfortunately, he did not live to see the day when his horses began to win prizes at the most prestigious races in America.

The business of Frank Mars was continued by his son, and today his grandchildren, John and Forrest Jr., are already running the company, to whom Frank Mars, the son of Forrest, the founder of Mars, handed over the reins in 1995.

Forrest Mars was born in 1904 to a pastry chef in Minnesota. Everyone in the confectioner's family worked, the head of the family Frank himself sculpted cheap sweets at night, and his wife Ethel sold them from the stall the next day. Two types of sweets were even loved by the locals. One type of sweets "creamy Victoria" was made from cream with sugar, the other "mar-o-bar" - from caramel, nuts and chocolate.

When Forrest was six years old, Frank and Ethel divorced. And the mother took her son to her parents in North Brettleford, a small mining town.

Forrest's childhood and youth were what a future American billionaire should be. After high school, he won a scholarship to the University of California at Berkeley. In 1923, he even went to jail for sticking up all the streetlights and shop windows in Chicago with advertisements for these then little-known cigarettes. Upon his release, Forrest decided to transfer to Yale University, where he studied chemistry and economics, avidly reading books about DuPont and John D. Rockefeller. In 1928, he graduated from Yale University, and returned to his father, who by this time had already founded his first bar company, Mars.

The son began to work with him.

In 1947, Forrest E. Mars, Sr. documented his commitment to creating ‘mutuality of benefits’ for all stakeholders

It was during these years of work with his father Forrest Mars, according to him, and not according to the legend written above, it was he, in his own words, Forrest Mars who came up with the first cult sweet - Milky Way. And the legend sounds exactly like this: Forrest once drank a chocolate cocktail with his father and advised him to enclose the contents of the cocktail in a chocolate bar. “He added some caramel on top and chocolate around,” Forrest recalled. — It was not very good chocolate, he always skimped on quality. But this candy was on sale. And without any advertising. This is how one of the cult sweets of the 20th century was born, which is strongly associated by all sweet teeth with the Mars empire. In its first year of sales, Milky Way brought in $800,000 in net income. But the relationship between father and son did not work out, after a few years, the relationship escalated to such an extent that there was a break.

Forrest Mars dreamed of world domination, while his father only dreamed of a secure old age. And the company moved to Chicago. Frank built himself a large mansion in Wisconsin and lived happily ever after. But here the idyll came to an end. Frank did not want to strain, but Forrest dreamed of world domination. The relationship between father and son became increasingly strained, to say the least. “I told my father that if he didn’t give me a third of the business, I would back off. Then he said: “well, go ahead,” Forrest said. Forrest went to England.

In 1932, Forrest settled in England, rented a tiny workshop and began to do his usual thing - to sculpt sweets. On the already proven Milky Way base, naming it, however, for its own safety Mars. However, the Mars chocolate bar from the very beginning was a product of a completely different quality, and Forrest understood this, that the taste preferences of the British are different from those of the Americans. He used delicate milk chocolate and sweet caramel filling. And until now, the Mars chocolate bar, contrary to popular belief, is an English product, little known in the USA.

While promoting his candy bar, Forrest came up with an ingenious marketing ploy that saved the frugal English from the unpleasant consciousness that buying sweets is spending money on pleasure, and therefore wasting it. "Mars"

Mars argued - this is not pleasure, but a charge of strength and energy. It's more than just sweetness - it's food. These are eggs, a lot of baked milk, butter - the best combination in order to relieve fatigue. So it was written on the packaging (this idea is still used in Mars commercials to this day: a bar with a thick layer of chocolate is equated, almost to a medicine to calm nerves and restore strength). "

Chocolate for food” sold out with a bang. And Forrest was right in assuming that this candy would crush the US confectionery market.

Forrest's father had the idea for the Milky Way bar. Forrest would not be a true Mars if he had not come up with something of his own, no less grandiose. He succeeded to the fullest - M&M sweets are the brainchild of Forrest Mars.

There is a legend about the creation of M&M`s. In 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, Forrest allegedly visited that country and there he saw how soldiers on vacation eat small chocolates covered with a sweet shell. The candies protected by the shell did not melt in the hands. Mars immediately realized: after all, this is much more important for children than for valiant warriors. And he immediately shook hands with Harrison, the manufacturer of candies in the shell. Like, I’ll help you get promoted in Europe, and I’ll take over the USA. Industry historians consider this a fairy tale, but the fact remains: Harrison produced Smarties in Europe, and Mars successfully traded M&M`s in the USA, which became "a real American sweet".

Returning to their father, they merged their companies and then in the 60s, the M&M Empire was finally formed. Having completed the empire, in 1995 Mars handed over the company to his sons John and Forrest Jr., but at the same time continued to participate in the company's affairs, inventing and implementing new projects.

Their stunning success was explained very simply - they were covered with a special shell, and did not melt in the hands. This feature formed the basis of the advertising slogan that we hear today: "Melts in your mouth, not in your hands."

The popularity of the candy was so great that Forrest decided to rename his company to M&M Ltd. Unfortunately, Frank Mars could no longer share his triumph with his son - in 1934 he died of heart failure.

M&M Ltd's most successful deal was the purchase of Uncle Ben's. This company was the leader among the manufacturers of instant rice. With such a powerful assortment, Forrest increasingly looked towards the American market. In 1964, he merged his company with his father's.

This is how the giant M&M / Mars was born. Interestingly, Forrest did not want to hear about going public, and insisted that the business should remain at the disposal of the family.

Forrest Mars died in 1999.

Of the current employees, few personally worked with the founding father of the company. But there is still a lot to be said about him.

Forrest Mars was America's most secretive billionaire. Stubbornly defending the right to privacy, both his own and his company, he forbade the disclosure of the names of employees of the Mars Corporation.

Forrest Mars' pedantry and scrupulousness in everything related to product quality and the company's reputation have become proverbial. The slightest deviation from the standards set by him personally turned into the most severe scolding of the guilty, and Forrest Mars made no exceptions for his own children.

There is evidence that Forrest Mars was a rude, harsh and direct person who overwhelmed his subordinates. He could yell and even throw him down the stairs. There are still legends about his volcanic temperament and unbridled outbursts of anger, when the matter was not limited to dismissal, but abuse and beatings took place. He did not appreciate individuality or initiative in employees, and most of all, in his own words, he hated originality, which he always considered the sworn enemy of success. At the same time, he was pathologically closed. I hated public life. Didn't give an interview. I forbade taking pictures. Presentations were considered a waste of time. When well-known journalist Joel Glenn Brenner, who wrote the book "Chocolate Emperors", called the company's office to find out the name of the head of Mars, the secretary replied that this information was classified and hung up.

They say that during the daily rounds of the production workshops, the president of the company personally tasted all the products, including pet food! Pedigree dog biscuits, according to the boss, should also be liked by pet owners - only in this case the dogs will appreciate the master's care of themselves.

Another episode was documented and became the property of the press. One day, Forrest Mars bought a bag of M&Ms at a convenience store and was horrified to find that the two capital Ms were not printed in the center of the round emblem, as required, but slightly shifted. The boss's anger was so strong that in the middle of the night he raised the leadership of the company and ordered the entire defective lot to be immediately withdrawn from sale.

And at one of the meetings with the management of the corporation, Forrest Mars publicly stated that, being a religious person, he should pray ... for Milky Way and Snickers!

At Mars, the common phrase "there are no irreplaceable employees" was considered simply indecent. Forrest Mars liked to say: “You can change me - just think, the president of the company! But it’s not so easy to find a replacement for a talented employee.” The head of the company spared no effort and money to search for talents that could serve the benefit of the company. For those who managed to lure away from competitors, he created exceptional conditions for work.

Mars Chocolate North America associates celebrating with government officials, company executives and project partners to unveil the renovation, cutting-edge Mars Chocolate North America headquarters. The state-of-the-art Hackettstown site, which encompasses offices and a manufacturing plant, now represents the company’s iconic brands in a way that is “magical, collaborative and sustainable.” Mars Chocolate North America's headquarters is where more than 1,200 associates work and M&M'S® Brand Chocolate Candies are manufactured in Hackettstown, New Jersey.

In its then structure, the company was very similar to modern Apple. It was almost impossible to get any information about her. But some of the methods that Mars used against its employees are still known.

First of all, it is a strict control over the quality of products. Forrest employees tried to create the best working conditions, as he understood perfectly well that the success of the company depended on them. This, however, did not prevent him from subjecting the guilty workers to the most severe criticism, sometimes turning to personalities.

Another important point is that Mars abandoned offices and any partitions separating employees from each other. This was done so that all employees could feel like one team.

mars,Incorporated is the largest American investor in the Moscow region
In the Moscow region, one of the largest foreign investors is the Mars company, which has invested more than $ 400 million in the construction of its enterprises. Thus, the Mars confectionery factory and the national office (near the Sitenka station), as well as a factory for the production of animal feed are located in the Stupinsky district of the Moscow region (near the village of Luzhniki). In Russia, the company operates through a subsidiary of Mars LLC.

Today, such an organization of jobs is also quite popular in some companies. It should also be noted that the company was one of the first to acquire its own staff training center.

Forrest Mars has been creative and charitable. He put into practice the sponsorship of those projects and events, the main participants of which were and to this day remain the company's regular and most loyal customers - children. For example, in the city where the headquarters of Mars is located, the Chocolate Festival and other charity events are held annually, adored by local children. So the company forms the next generation of potential buyers.

Forrest Mars actually retired in 1995, handing over the reins to his children. But he retained control of the corporation until his death in 1999.

Another small detail in the image of Forrest Mars. Forrest Mars ate a huge amount of chocolate every day. But, despite this, he rarely used the services of a dentist, arguing that "it's competitors' chocolate that spoils teeth, and Mars products leave dentists without work."

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Mars company today

The giant Mars has remained a private company, perhaps the largest in the world. It is already managed by Frank's grandchildren - Jacqueline, Forrest Jr. and John. The company makes great efforts to ensure that its products meet modern requirements.

Thus, Mars abandoned the use of many potentially harmful additives, and significantly changed the composition of almost all of its products. For example, the bar of the same name has lost artificial flavors, and has become much less high-calorie. The company constantly holds campaigns to promote a healthy lifestyle, in particular in England.

Recently, the issue of resource extraction on the Red Planet has become increasingly relevant, and interest is shown, first of all, by representatives of organizations that have found financial support in Silicon Valley.

Experts believe that a lot of work is required to determine the rights to resources seized from celestial bodies, otherwise conflicts between firms and countries will inevitably flare up. Barry Kellman, a law professor who studies space management, says there's a lot of discussion about companies going into space and extracting useful resources from there.

Sale of water from asteroids

A US company called Planetary Resources aims to extract water from asteroids within the next 10-15 years. The first robotic test mission as part of the asteroid exploration mission will begin as early as 2020.

The CEO of this company, Chris Lewicki, made a statement that everything mined in space and brought to Earth is the property of the one who carried it out, in accordance with the space laws of the United States and Luxembourg. At the same time, such resources can, like any other property, be sold, stored or donated, and much more.

The company has plans to extract oxygen and hydrogen - the main components of water - from asteroids, and then put the water up for sale. At the same time, Levitsky is going to sell water not on Earth, but in outer space, which is expected to be in demand in the implementation of various missions. Other spacecraft will be able to use the hydrogen and oxygen available on the ISS. It takes a lot of financial resources to move these types of fuel from our planet into space, so it is necessary to organize the available energy to facilitate the travel of ships. For example, to carry out one launch, it is enough to obtain oxygen and hydrogen from one relatively small asteroid the size of a football field.

Mars Association

However, not all experts are sure that the collection of space water is legal.

The treaty of 1967 is currently in force, which regulates the basic space standards, according to which space is the property of all mankind. States cannot appropriate any celestial bodies.

If the American corporation SpaceX claims to profit from the use of asteroids, can this be considered a national treasure?

However, individual countries are beginning to adopt their own laws, giving the right to exercise property rights on a global scale. The US space agency takes a neutral position on this issue.

From seas to space

Lawyers believe that when resolving space issues, one can be guided not only by national laws and the 1967 treaty, but also by other earthly rules. The Convention on the Law of the Sea provides for the exclusive right of countries to use natural resources located on the territory up to 200 miles from the coastline, and the movement of ships and aircraft of other countries can be carried out through these waters. A similar rule can be applied in outer space: companies may have exclusive economic rights at their landing site, but not be able to use the entire astronomical object, for example, Mars.

Professor Kellman believes that even if a universal regime of property rights in outer space is adopted, this will not save us from conflicts between countries and companies.

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Grisha Prophets

After a lull in the 1990s and 2000s, the popularization and exploration of space is experiencing a rebirth; dozens of spaceports operate on Earth, expeditions to Mars and the exploration of the Moon are planned for the foreseeable future, real space tourism is emerging, and at least a few people are constantly in space. This means that people will increasingly have to deal with unexpected legal questions - from who owns space to whether you can buy land on the moon; moreover, in the near future space laws will only develop and become more complicated. Look At Me found out what laws apply in space now - and what will happen to them next.

How are the laws in space regulated?

Through international treaties. Several of them have been concluded in the entire history of space exploration, but the most important one is the so-called Outer Space Treaty, signed in 1967, ten years after the launch of the first artificial satellite. In short, it outlines two important principles: firstly, that space is a demilitarized zone - which means that weapons of mass destruction cannot be placed on the Moon, other celestial bodies and on stations and satellites in outer space and, in general, they can only be used in peaceful purposes. Secondly, that outer space and celestial bodies (and all resources associated with them) are common to all humankind - which means that they cannot be appropriated by one state or a private person. The treaty has been signed by 102 countries and is still in effect.

Who owns the moon, mars and everything else in space?

As follows from the Outer Space Treaty, no one. The words "public domain" do not leave much room for interpretation, and given the love of mankind to appropriate everything, it is not surprising that the issue of ownership and territories in space was resolved in the first place. Speaking about who exactly owns the Moon, people often recall the Agreement on the Moon and other celestial bodies of 1979; it repeats what is already written in the Outer Space Treaty: no state has the right to extend claims of its sovereignty to the Moon and celestial bodies. The catch is that although the Agreement is in force and is part of international law, it has not been signed by any state - a member of the "Big Eight" and not a single state with a space program (except perhaps Kazakhstan, on whose territory the Baikonur cosmodrome is located, but Russia rents it). The status of the "lunar agreement" is therefore somewhat dubious, and it is possible that when the regulation of who owns what in space becomes practical, everything will change; but, as mentioned above, the Outer Space Treaty has definitely not been canceled by anyone.

What about the man who was selling plots of land on the moon?

Dennis Hope, of course, everyone also immediately remembers as soon as it comes to the laws in space. In case you don't know, he created the Lunar Embassy organization in 1980, which sells certificates for plots on the Moon. Even in Russia, there are two legal entities representing Hope: Lunar Embassy LLC and Lunar Consulate LLC; and its certificates in our country were acquired by about 10,000 people. But with Hope's activities, everything is simple: his certificates have no legal force - and most people are bought, rather, as souvenirs. According to Hope, he found a "loophole" in the Agreement on the Moon and other celestial bodies, since it supposedly does not say anything about the fact that private individuals cannot own the territory on the Moon - but no, it actually says, just not in the most obvious words. .

Does the International Space Station also belong to no one?

With artificial objects like satellites and stations, everything is easier - they do not cease to belong to someone as soon as they cross the mark of 100 kilometers (yes, if you are wondering where space begins and state borders end in height - it is generally accepted that this is 100 or 110 kilometers from the surface of the Earth); they are not subject to the principle of common property. These facilities continue to be owned by the governments or private companies that launched them - and subject to their own laws. The most interesting case is the International Space Station, which in the legal sense is not a single object, since it consists of different elements and modules provided by different states. Each state retains control over its module - and jurisdiction within these modules is appropriate.

And what, no one tried to challenge all these agreements and treaties?

Of course they tried. At the state and international levels, everything is quite peaceful: agreements regulating relations in space are discussed and signed without problems - if only because there is still little practical sense in challenging them. But on a private level, it is full of madmen. For example, the American Gregory Nemitz, who tried to sue NASA for landing his spacecraft on the asteroid EROS 433, which Nemitz discovered and believed to be his. The same Dennis Hope tried to proclaim the Lunar Republic and declare the Moon the territory of a new state, with its own constitution, whose citizens are the owners of the plots he sold - of course, nothing came of it. In general, the current cosmic laws are opposed mainly by individual people - and they lose.

What about the future - when private flights will be developed or even lunar and Martian colonies will appear?

There are no exact answers to this question yet - but many lawyers are now thinking about how to develop space law. Both private space flights and colonies on the Moon can very soon become a reality: the former are developing at a frantic pace, as for the latter, both NASA and Roscosmos have recently announced their intention to build settlements on the Moon. The same NASA plans to catch an asteroid and use the resources inside - and it is not clear how the current international law will deal with this. There are several theories where everything should go next: some researchers believe that space is literally endless, so there are so many resources that everyone should use them: both states and private companies. Others - on the contrary, that it should be treated as a valuable natural reserve that needs to be protected and protected. Most likely, all serious research in space in the foreseeable future (well, let's say the colonization of Mars and the Moon) will be carried out by different states collectively - and everything will work approximately like on the ISS.

What do existing laws say about aliens?

There is an equally interesting answer to this interesting question: cosmic law is exclusively anthropocentric. Any theoretical extraterrestrial life form - from microflora to intelligent aliens - is not considered in the laws as a subject with which humanity can enter into legal relations. They are on the same rights as just the environment, like plants and animals on Earth. It is clear that if humanity really encounters intelligent aliens, the laws will have to be changed in a hurry - but at first it will be somewhat awkward.