Understand any stock in simple English
Enter a ticker to learn what the company does and how it makes money.
Mars, Incorporated
Mars makes and sells candy, chewing gum, and pet food, plus it runs a large veterinary hospital business.
Mars is a private, family-owned giant that sells two very different kinds of everyday products: sweets people eat and food and care for pets. You probably know it from Snickers, M&M's, Twix, Skittles, and Orbit gum. It is also the world's biggest pet food company, thanks to brands like Pedigree, Royal Canin, Whiskas, and Cesar.
The candy business is simple to understand: Mars makes chocolate bars and sugary snacks and sells them to grocery stores, convenience stores, and vending operators, who then sell them to you. The pet side is where the quiet money is. Pet food is a repeat purchase — a bag runs out and the owner buys another — so it produces steady, predictable sales. Mars has also pushed into pet healthcare by acquiring veterinary hospital chains, which lets it earn money from the people who care for the animals, not just the animals' dinner. Mars stays private, so its shares don't trade, and the family keeps tight control. It rarely publishes detailed financials, though it is one of the largest private companies in the United States, with annual revenue well into the tens of billions of dollars. It has grown largely by buying brands and businesses that fit its two worlds, then leaning on its massive distribution network to get them onto shelves. Its biggest rivals in candy include The Hershey Company and Mondelez International, while in pet food it competes with Nestlé and Colgate-Palmolive, which owns Hill's Pet Nutrition.
The company's edge is scale and habit. Candy is a cheap, impulse buy, and Mars products sit near the checkout where small spending feels painless. Pet food is stickier: pet owners are loyal and rarely switch without reason. Mars has also spent heavily to buy its way into veterinary care, betting that owning the clinics gives it a direct relationship with pet owners and a place to sell food and medicine. That strategy makes it less dependent on a single shelf of chocolate and more like a full-service pet business with a candy habit on the side.
Saved answer · last researched 4 Nov 2026
BIG PICTURE
Nearly half of Mars's money comes from North America, the region it has known longest
- 47% North America
- 25% Europe
- 14% Asia Pacific
- 8% Latin America
- 6% Middle East and Africa
Mars sells candy and pet food in more than 78 markets, yet North America alone accounts for an estimated 47% of group revenue. It is the company's largest operating hub, with over 80,000 U.S. associates and a wide veterinary network. Europe is the next biggest region. The company's income still leans heavily on the place where it started. Source: Ken Research, data from 2025
Timeline
A Candy Factory Fails in Tacoma
Frank Mars started a candy factory in Tacoma with his second wife, selling fresh candy wholesale. It failed, because a better-established rival, Brown & Haley, already owned that town. By 1920 he was back in Minnesota, where the real company began as Mar-O-Bar Co.
The Milky Way Bar Arrives
Frank's son Forrest had the idea that changed everything: turn a chocolate malted milk shake into a candy bar you could hold in your hand. Frank launched the Milky Way, advertised it as a milkshake in bar form, and it became the best-selling candy bar in the country. The company moved to Chicago and built a plant that still stands today.
Forrest Mars Goes to England
Forrest and his father disagreed, so Forrest took a check and the foreign rights to the Milky Way and left to build his own company in England. The Mars bar he launched there was a hit, and the company began spreading across the world.
Forrest Takes Back the Chicago Company
Frank Mars died in 1934, and the company passed to his widow's family, who ran it badly. Forrest waited and fought until he controlled his father's Chicago business, then merged it with his own into one Mars, with himself as the real leader. The divided family business was finally whole again.
A New Home in Virginia
Mars moved its headquarters to McLean, Virginia, planting its flag near Washington, D.C.
Mars Buys Wrigley
Mars and Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway together bought Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company, the world's biggest chewing gum maker, in a huge all-cash deal. Mars became the world's leading gum manufacturer, and its chocolate side was reorganized into Mars Chocolate North America.
Chocolate and Gum Become One
Mars merged its chocolate and Wrigley businesses into a single unit called Mars Wrigley Confectionery, keeping global offices in Chicago while moving its U.S. offices to New Jersey.
Mars Buys VCA Animal Hospitals
Mars announced a multibillion-dollar deal to buy VCA, a chain of animal hospitals based in Los Angeles. The purchase made Mars Petcare one of the leading veterinary care providers in the business, a long way from candy.
Mars Takes Full Control of Kind
After owning a stake for years, Mars bought the rest of the snack company Kind North America for $5 billion. The move pushed Mars further beyond chocolate and deeper into snacking.
Mars Swallows Kellanova
Mars completed its $35.9 billion purchase of Kellanova after winning European Union approval, adding brands like Pringles, Cheez-It and Pop-Tarts. The new Mars Snacking division serves over 145 markets, and the combined company became a $65 billion-plus family-owned giant, one of the largest consumer goods deals in years.