Mars Incorporated

Mars Incorporated
legal form	Corporation
founding	1911 in Tacoma , Washington , United States
Seat	McLean , Virginia , United States
management	Grant F. Reid ( President and CEO )
Number of employees	80,000 (2017)
sales	$ 35 billion (2017)
Branch	food industry
Website	www.mars.com

Mars Inc. is a McLean, Virginia -based US food company that manufactures candy bars , groceries, beverages, animal feed, and plant care products.

history

1911 founded Frank and Ethel Mars in Tacoma ( Washington the company). 1932 invented Forrest Mars senior the chocolate bars Mars .

Until September 1, 2007, the European subsidiaries operated under the name Masterfoods . The area for pet food was called Effem (after the initials "FM" of the company founder). In 2007, the names of Mars Incorporated subsidiaries were standardized worldwide. On October 6, 2008, Mars acquired The Wrigley Company for $ 23 billion.

In February 2016, Mars launched a product recall of the Mars and Snickers brands in 59 countries after plastic particles were found in a Mars product.

In January 2017, the company made a takeover offer to veterinary clinic operator VCA Inc. (Veterinary Centers of America). Including debt, Mars plans to spend 9.1 billion US dollars (8.6 billion euros). That's $ 93 per share. In June 2018, Mars acquired the veterinary chain Anicura, which operates on the European market, thereby further expanding the animal health business .

Companies

The company is represented at 421 locations in 78 countries and employs more than 75,000 people. The annual revenue is about 35 billion US dollars (as of 2016). It is the seventh-largest privately held company in the United States , according to Forbes business magazine .

subsidiary company

• Mars Germany is the German daughter of Mars. In 1960 the company started production in Germany. German branches are located in Verden , Viersen , Minden and Unterhaching . The managing directors are Thomas Bittinger (Mars Chocolate), Loïc Moutault (Mars Petcare), Cyrille Balmes (Mars Food) and Michael Kunze ( Wrigley ).

• Mars Austria is the Austrian subsidiary of Mars. The production facilities are for confectionery in Breitenbrunn am Neusiedler See and for pet food in Bruck an der Leitha . Domestic sales are based in Vienna. The managing director is Andreas Dialer.
• Mars' Swiss headquarters are in Zug .

Products

Mars businesses and brands :

• Confectionery: Amicelli, Balisto , Banjo , Bounty , Celebrations, Dove, M & M’s , Maltesers, Mars , Milky Way , Snickers , Twix
• Pet food: Cesar, Chappi, Crave, Dreamies, Frolic, Greenies, James Wellbeloved, Kitekat, Loyal, Nutro, Pedigree, Perfect Fit, Royal Canin , Sheba, Trill, Whiskas , Winergy
• Animal hygiene: Catsan, Natusan, Thomas
• Food: Ebly, Dolmio, Mirácoli , Seeds of Change, Suzi Wan, Uncle Ben’s
• Wrigley : 5 Gum , Airwaves, Altoids, Aquadrops, Big Red, Doublemint, Extra, Hubba Bubba , Juicy Fruit , Lockets, Orbit, Skittles , Starburst, Wrigley's Spearmint
• Plant care: Seramis
• Vending machines: Flavia

criticism

Mars Inc. held a (since 1995) patent for the use of controversial nanoparticles in food processing (United States Patent 5741505, 1995). The technology described makes it possible to use a coating of titanium dioxide to prevent chocolate from developing frost after a long period of storage . The coatings can also be used on cookies, potato chips, and breakfast cereals. The company said it wasn't using the technology.

In 2007, the animal welfare organization PETA accused Mars Inc., contrary to statements made by the company to the contrary, of funding animal experiments on rats to determine the effects of chocolate on blood vessels .

In the Black Book of Brands , the cocoa suppliers in Ivory Coast are accused of serious human rights violations such as exploitation and child slavery. ARD reports from 2010 and 2012 came to the conclusion that large companies like Mars Inc., Kraft Foods or Nestlé “at least tolerate” child slavery .

According to the study Chocolate's Dark Secret by the global environmental organization Mighty Earth , a large part of the cocoa processed by Mars and other large chocolate producers comes from illegal cocoa plantations in national parks and other protected areas in the Ivory Coast and Ghana . Mighty Earth accuses chocolate producers of being responsible for the disappearance of large areas of forest in these countries and thus for dwindling populations of animal species such as chimpanzees and elephants through negligence in their raw material procurement .

Web links

Commons : Mars, Incorporated  - collection of images, videos, and audio files

• Mars Official Website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mars, Incorporated President Paul S. Michaels to Retire in December 2014; 26-YEAR Mars Veteran, Grant F. Reid to Lead Organization. Mars.com, March 2014.
2. ↑ ^{a b} [1] . As of 2017.
3. ↑ Mars History (Eng.)
4. ↑ Mars press release: Mars announces merger agreement with Wm. Wrigley (accessed November 25, 2013)
5. ↑ Mars, Snickers, Milky Way: US company starts huge chocolate recall , Handelsblatt , February 23, 2016
6. ↑ Mars group buys American veterinary clinic operator. In: Kurier.at , online edition of January 9, 2017, accessed on January 9, 2017.
7. ↑ Mars Petcare takes over AniCura for strategic development of the European market for veterinary medicine
8. ↑ Forbes America's Top 25 Private Companies 2016 (accessed January 12, 2017)
9. ↑ From the laboratory to the plate - The use of nanotechnology in the food sector , page 20, online at Nanotechnologie_lebensmittel_studie.pdf, there bund.net ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and still Not checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . 
10. ^ Fatal animal experiments at MARS. The cruel truth about the candy bar maker . In: PETA.de. December 2007, archived from the original on March 24, 2015 ; Retrieved April 4, 2016 . 
11. ↑ Klaus Werner Lobo, Hans Weiss: The new black book brand companies - the machinations of global corporations. Ullenstein, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-548-37314-0 , p. 162.
12. ↑ Dirty chocolate . Report / documentation by Miki Mistrati on behalf of the NDR , 43:23 minutes, German first broadcast on October 6, 2010 in Das Erste , available under dirty chocolate , position: 40: 02-41: 30
13. ↑ Dirty Chocolate II (2012) by Miki Mistrati ( Memento from January 11, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Mighty Earth: Investigation Links Chocolate to Destruction of National Parks ( Memento from September 15, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
15. ↑ CHOCOLATE'SDARK SECRET ( English , PDF) Mighty Earth. Retrieved September 6, 2019.