Chocolate is weirdly personal. People don't just "like" a brand; they have an almost tribal loyalty to the stuff they grew up eating. If you look at the candy aisle today, one name basically looms over everything else: Mars. Now officially known as Mars Wrigley, the company behind M&Ms has a history that reads less like a corporate manual and more like a family soap opera mixed with military industrial strategy. It's fascinating because, despite being a multi-billion dollar global titan, it’s still privately held by the Mars family. No shareholders to please. No quarterly earnings calls to sweat. Just a massive, secretive empire built on sugar, pecans, and some very clever engineering.
The Forrest Mars Legacy and the Birth of M&Ms
Most people think M&Ms were some genius invention dreamt up in a kitchen. Not really. Forrest Mars Sr. actually got the idea while traveling in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. He saw soldiers eating small chocolate beads encased in a hard sugar shell. The shell was the "aha!" moment. It kept the chocolate from melting in the heat. Back then, refrigeration was a luxury and chocolate was a seasonal mess. Forrest teamed up with Bruce Murrie—the son of Hershey’s president William Murrie—to ensure a steady supply of chocolate and sugar during the war rations. That's where the two "Ms" come from: Mars and Murrie.
Business was cutthroat. Forrest was famously difficult, a perfectionist who reportedly would call plant managers in the middle of the night if he found a single M&M with a crooked "m" on it. He didn't just want to sell candy; he wanted to dominate the logistics of snacking. By the time the US entered World War II, M&Ms were exclusively sold to the military. They were the perfect soldier snack. They didn't melt in the tropics, they provided a quick calorie hit, and they were easy to pack. When the GIs came home, they were hooked. The brand didn't have to fight for market share—they had an entire generation of returning heroes acting as brand ambassadors.
Why the Mars Wrigley Business Model is Different
You can't talk about M&Ms without talking about the sheer scale of the Mars family business. They own everything from Snickers and Skittles to Pedigree dog food and Ben’s Original rice. Because they don't answer to Wall Street, they can play the long game. They can spend decades—literally decades—investing in cocoa sustainability or supply chain tech without worrying about a dip in the stock price.
It’s about control. Total control.
Mars buys more cocoa than almost anyone else on the planet. This gives them immense leverage, but it also puts them in the crosshairs of ethical debates regarding the cocoa supply chain in West Africa. Honestly, the industry has struggled with child labor issues for years. Mars has pledged billions to their "Cocoa for Generations" plan, aiming for 100% sustainably sourced cocoa. Critics, however, point out that moving the needle in countries like Ivory Coast and Ghana is incredibly slow work. It’s a messy, complicated reality that exists behind the colorful candy shells.
The Engineering of a Snack
Have you ever wondered why an M&M has that specific crunch? It’s not an accident. It’s physics. The ratio of the sugar shell thickness to the tempered chocolate core is calibrated to provide a specific "mouthfeel." Mars engineers are obsessed with this. They use high-speed imaging to study how the candy breaks.
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The "melt in your mouth, not in your hands" slogan wasn't just marketing fluff; it was a technical specification. Even the "m" on the candy is a feat of engineering. It’s printed using a process similar to offset printing, but with edible vegetable dye. They produce millions of these things every hour. The consistency required to keep the colors uniform across different factories globally is staggering. If a batch of "Blue" in New Jersey looks different than a batch in France, the brand loses its power.
The Great Character Controversy
Let's talk about the Spokescandies. In 2022 and 2023, Mars found itself in the middle of a bizarre cultural firestorm. They decided to update the characters—the Green M&M traded her go-go boots for sneakers, and they introduced a Purple M&M to represent inclusivity. The internet, predictably, lost its mind.
It was a fascinating look at how a legacy brand tries to stay relevant. Some saw it as "woke" pandering; others saw it as a logical update for a modern audience. Mars eventually ran a Super Bowl ad featuring Maya Rudolph, claiming they were pausing the characters indefinitely, only to bring them back at the end of the commercial. It was a classic "new Coke" style marketing play. They leaned into the chaos. By making the candies a topic of national debate, they stayed at the forefront of the conversation without spending a dime on traditional PR for weeks. It showed that even a 100-year-old company knows how to bait the 24-hour news cycle.
Beyond the Bag: The Move Into Veterinary Care
Here is the thing most people get wrong about Mars: they aren't just a candy company anymore. In fact, a huge chunk of their revenue now comes from pets. They own VCA, Banfield, and BluePearl veterinary hospitals.
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Why? Because the "pet humanization" trend is a goldmine. People might skip a candy bar during a recession, but they won't skip their dog's heart medication. By diversifying into pet health, Mars has built a recession-proof moat around their candy business. It’s a brilliant, if somewhat unexpected, pivot. They’ve applied the same rigorous supply chain and data-driven management from the candy world to the veterinary world.
Managing the Sugar Backlash
The world is getting healthier, or at least it's trying to. Sugar is the new tobacco in some legislative circles. Mars knows this. They were actually one of the first major food companies to support the FDA's efforts to list "added sugars" on packaging.
They’re shrinking portion sizes. You’ve probably noticed the "share size" bags that are actually just the old regular size, or the "100 calorie" packs. This isn't just about health; it’s about margins. Selling less product for a similar price point under the guise of "portion control" is a masterclass in business pivot. They are also investing heavily in sugar alternatives and "permissible indulgence." The acquisition of KIND bars was a massive signal to the market: Mars wants to be in your gym bag, not just your Halloween bucket.
Understanding the Global Supply Chain
The sheer volume of ingredients Mars moves is mind-boggling. Think about the peanuts. Mars is one of the largest consumers of peanuts in the world. They have their own dedicated scientists working on peanut genetics to ensure the crops are resistant to aflatoxin and drought.
- Cocoa: Sourced primarily from West Africa, with increasing investment in Latin American estates.
- Dairy: Huge contracts with dairy cooperatives in the US and Europe.
- Sugar: A mix of beet and cane sugar depending on the regional refinery location.
If there’s a strike at a port in South America or a drought in the Midwest, the team at Mars Wrigley headquarters in Chicago knows about it instantly. They operate like a private intelligence agency. This vertical integration—or at least the deep control of the horizontal supply chain—is why they can keep M&Ms relatively affordable while competitors struggle with price volatility.
What You Can Learn From the Mars Model
Whether you're an entrepreneur or just someone interested in how the world works, the Mars story offers some pretty gritty lessons. They don't jump on every trend. They wait. They watch. And then they buy the leader of that trend.
They also value "The Five Principles": Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom. It sounds like corporate jargon, but for Mars, "Freedom" specifically means being private. Not having to answer to the stock market allows them to take risks that would get a public CEO fired.
Actionable Takeaways for Navigating the Modern Market:
- Divert and Conquer: Look at how Mars moved into Petcare. If your primary industry is volatile, find a secondary market with high "stickiness" or emotional investment.
- Logistics is King: A great product (like chocolate) is useless if it melts before it gets to the customer. Solve the delivery problem, and you own the market.
- Own the Conversation: When faced with a PR crisis or a "cancel culture" moment, sometimes leaning into the absurdity—like the Spokescandies drama—is more effective than a dry press release.
- Long-Term Sourcing: If you rely on a specific raw material, don't just buy it. Understand the science of it. Invest in the sustainability of your suppliers so they don't vanish in ten years.
- Brand Consistency: Guard your brand assets (like the M&M colors or the specific "m" font) with obsessive detail. Familiarity breeds trust, and trust breeds repeat purchases.
The candy landscape is changing. With the rise of GLP-1 weight loss drugs and a general shift away from processed sugars, Mars Wrigley is facing its biggest challenge since the 1940s. But if history is any indication, they’ll probably just buy the companies making the weight loss snacks and find a way to put a colorful shell on them. They play for keeps.