Forrest Mars Sr. was the American entrepreneur responsible for leading the Mars candy empire. His products, which are loved until today, included Mars bar, M&M’s, and Uncle Ben’s Rice. He was privileged to have been born to the family of the founder of Mars Inc., Frank Mars.
Mars was born on March 21, 1904 in Wadena, Minnesota. His parents divorced when he was a boy and he lived with his mother. He spent his boyhood in Saskatchewan, Canada. After finishing his high school, Mars attended the University of California, and later moved to Yale University. He finished his bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering at Yale in 1928.
After many years, Mars was reunited with his father when he began working at Mars Inc. But the two had a serious disagreement later because the son wanted an international expansion but the father did not. In 1933, Mars took a buyout from his father. Afterwards, he moved to England and developed the Mars bar. In the process of developing the Mars bar, Mars worked with Tobler and Nestlé in Europe.
Mars returned to the US established Food Products Manufacturing, his food business. He also established a gourmet food company which he named Pedigree. During this time, Mars developed the Uncle Ben’s Rice line.
Later on, Mars partnered with Bruce Murrie and the duo developed M&M’s, which Mars patterned after a candy he discovered in Spain in the 1930s.. The new candy line carried a very effective marketing strategy embedded in a one-sentence tag line: “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” In 1954, Mars introduced a derivation of the M&Ms, the Peanut M&Ms. When his father died, Mars took over Mars Inc. In 1964, Mars merged Mars Inc. with his own company and expanded his candy business to become one of the most popular candy empires in the world.
Mars decided to retire in 1973. He bequeathed Mars Inc. to his children. While in his retirement home in Henderson, Nevada, Mars founded Ethel M Chocolates in honor of his mother. In 1988, Mars Inc. purchased Ethel M.
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