"This is fun, but he thinks he can do better." Mars digs into this business," Borghesani said. "That's the year we say Mars was actually founded, 1911, when Mr. In 1911 they moved to Tacoma, Wash., to start wholesaling hand-dipped butter cremes. In 1910 the couple divorced, and Mars married another woman named Ethel. They welcomed Forrest Edward Mars into the family in 1904. By 1902, when he was 19, Mars was selling toffee chips across rural Minnesota and married his first wife, Ethel. "The people that preceded me many years ago had an eye on the future and ensured that we had a place in people's lives."įranklin Clarence Mars was born in western Minnesota in 1883, according to official company history.Īs a child, Mars suffered a bout of polio and spent time in the kitchen with his mother, Elva, learning to hand-dip chocolate candy. "We hold Milky Way in high esteem," said Anton Vincent, CEO of Mars Wrigley North America. with annual revenue of more than $45 billion, according to Forbes. Today Mars is the fourth-largest private company in the U.S. While the company would leave for Chicago by the end of the decade and is now based in Virginia, the success of the Minnesota-born Milky Way would lead to other long-lasting hits like Snickers, Three Musketeers and M&M's, making the Mars family billionaires in the process. "He's very ahead of his time and understands the importance of advertising," Borghesani said. Advertising campaigns and a national sales force got the word out about the newfangled confection of fluffy nougat, caramel and chocolate. He's making that connection with consumers."įrom a warehouse on Washington Avenue dubbed the "Nougat House," the company that became Mars Inc. "He launches this bar and starts advertising a chocolate malted milk in a candy bar. "Malted milk, caramel and chocolate were very important to young people during the day," said David Borghesani, chocolate historian at Mars Wrigley. Not bad for a 5-cent candy bar - which, to be clear, was named after the popular milkshakes of the time, not the galaxy. Within a year, sales reached $800,000 - the equivalent of more than $14 million in today's dollars. One hundred years ago, in 1923, the first Milky Way bar was made and sold in Minneapolis. The chocolate-coated whipped cream confection was too fragile to travel far and looked destined to join previous failures.Īs he sat with his son Forrest at a Minneapolis diner, the younger Mars had an idea that would change their lives - and candy - forever: Why not make a candy bar version of a malted milkshake? ![]() ![]() The Minnesota candyman was having limited success with his Mar-O-Bar.
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