[15] This factory produced and sold fresh candy wholesale,[14] but ultimately the venture failed[16][17] because there was a better established business, Brown & Haley, also operating in Tacoma.

These shops are an outgrowth of the Ethel M premium chocolate business that Forrest Mars started in Las Vegas in 1980 when he became bored with retirement.

22 manufacturing facilities in Hackettstown, New Jersey; Albany, Georgia; Burr Ridge, Illinois; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; and Mattoon, Illinois; Cleveland, Tennessee; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Columbia, South Carolina; Columbus, Ohio; Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania; Greenville, Mississippi; Greenville and Waco, Texas; Henderson and Reno, Nevada; Fort Smith, Arkansas; Joplin, Missouri; Kansas City, Missouri; Miami, Oklahoma; and Galena, Kansas.

Their newest chocolate producing facility, the first in 23 years, was established in 2014 at a cost of $270 million and is situated in Topeka, Kansas.

[39] In November 2020, Mars acquired full ownership of snack food company Kind North America for $5 billion.

[40] Two years later in December 2022, it was announced Mars had acquired the Utah headquartered whole-fruit snacking brand, Trü Frü.

[42] On September 1, 2023, Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention (NACP) has included two leading food corporations, PepsiCo and Mars, on the list of international sponsors of the war.

[43] On August 14, 2024, Mars Inc. announced its acquisition of Kellanova for $83.50 per share in cash, for a total consideration of $35.9 billion, including assumed net leverage.

Similarly, the Snickers bar was previously marketed in Ireland and the United Kingdom as Marathon until 1990; in the UK, France, Germany and the Netherlands, also until 1990; Galaxy in the Middle East is known as Dove in America and worldwide.

Initially marketed as Dimension 3 until 1989, FLAVIA was introduced in France and Germany in 1986 and Japan in 1992 then brought to the United States in 1996 and to Canada in 1997.

[59] In 2018, Mars Petcare acquired Genoscoper Laboratories, a Finnish animal molecular diagnostics company, "to form the basis for future practical applications in enabling precision healthcare for pets" under its genetic testing unit, Wisdom Health.

This acquisition resulted in Mars Petcare becoming the largest pet nutrition and veterinary care provider in the world.

[76] The company has made donations to Elizabethtown College, which includes a room sponsored by them and a weekly executive lecture series.

A 1993 Washington Post Magazine article was a rare raising of the veil, as the reporter was able to see the "M"s being applied to the M&M's, something that "no outsider had ever before been invited to observe".

[82] One study was conducted in collaboration with the Salk Institute regarding angiogenesis and spatial memory, in which mice were given an ad-lib diet that included epicatechin, plant-derived flavonoid.

One of the experiments involved groups of control and experimental animals, the latter of which were housed individually in cages that included a running wheel for optional exercise for two hours a day.

The study, which Mars contends was legally required in order for the company to make flavonoid-related health claims, showed that the inclusion of epicatechin in the diet improved memory and angiogenesis, more so if coupled with exercise.

[83][84][85] Mars has been criticized for buying cocoa beans from West African farmers who reportedly use unpaid or poorly paid child laborers.

In 2009, Mars announced that the company would work towards only purchasing cocoa from suppliers who meet environmental, labor, and production standards.

[90][91] In 2019, Mars announced that they could not guarantee that their chocolate products were free from child slave labor, as they could trace only 24% of their purchasing back to the farm level (see below).

[92] In 2021, Mars was named in a class action lawsuit filed by eight former child slaves from Mali who alleged that the company aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast.

The suit accused Mars (along with Nestlé, Cargill, Barry Callebaut, Olam International, the Hershey Company, and Mondelez International) of knowingly engaging in forced labor, and the plaintiffs sought damages for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

[96] A CBS television news investigation in 2023 found children as young as five years old working in the Ghana supply chain of Mars to harvest cocoa for brands such as Snickers and M&Ms.

[100][101] The report documents show, in several national parks and other protected areas, 90% or more of the land mass has been converted to cocoa.

[102] Less than four percent of Ivory Coast remains densely forested, and the chocolate companies' laissez-faire approach to sourcing has driven extensive deforestation in Ghana as well.

[103] In Ivory Coast, deforestation has pushed chimpanzees into just a few small pockets, and reduced the country's elephant population from several hundred thousand to about 200–400.