in his mid-30s on the verge of bankruptcy and fleeing of failed marriage a small town man had virtually no prospects he had no University education and no money to fall back on all he had was a dream to create a candy company and by ingeniously partnering with his biggest rival he was able to rise up and dominate the global chocolate Market starting a multi-generation Empire that would eventually rise to a value of almost $100 billion starting in his home kitchen this young entrepreneur ended up producing the most popular chocolate of all time this is the
story of Franklin Clarence Mars Franklin Clarence Mars was born in the small town of Hancock Minnesota in 1883 his father worked in a nearby serial grain Factory and it was his mother who had put him on the path to later success Franklin was confined to the house after Contracting polio and was forced to spend much of his time inside the house to help pass the time his mother taught him how to make candy from the baking process to dipping them into a chocolate coating Franklin came to know the method back to front fascinated by the
candy Franklin wasn't content with making his mother's recipes from an early age he was already adding twists experimenting with different flavor combinations and methods and his preoccupation never faded by the time he'd finished high school at the age of 19 he was already selling a product he marketed as Taylor's molasses chips made out of his mother's kitchen initially his Innovation was matched by his business Instinct becoming mildly successful selling the candies to locals but without any Capital to support the business Frank struggled to stay afloat it didn't help that competition in the candy making business
was ramping up the Hershey Company had been established a decade earlier and was expanding out of Pennsylvania to become a nationally recognized chocolate brand a few years later he was working as a Salesman married he had a newborn son to support his part-time candy business had failed but having grown up tinkering with his recipes Frank was certain that his product was good enough to be successful all he needed was a bit of luck at the time he and his family were living in the small town of wadina Minnesota his personal life was coming crashing down
too divorcing his first wife and losing custody of their son with that Frank moved to Tacoma Washington alone now Frank put all his energy into another business venture after arriving in Tacoma he founded the Mars Candy Factory in 1911 Frank was down on his luck when he began his newest business venture he was manufacturing the candies himself from his kitchen his first product was buttercream candy with a soft creamy filling encased by a rich chocolate the exterior once again though despite a quality product Mars's business hit a brick wall and his business failed Frank moved
his new family and second wife back to Minnesota this time to the big city of Minneapolis Frank was Now 37 had two major business failures and a strange son and ex-wife and no money to his name but he wasn't deterred something inside him told him that success was his fate candy was in his blood and there was nothing he knew better so once again he set up a business this time it was named marrow bar Co the first couple of years were unsuccessful with the flagship candy the marrow bar cracking under transport which didn't help
with success but this is when he would have his first successful product with nougat and a top layer of caramel packed inside a coating of milk chocolate it was the first ever filled candy bar Frank took inspiration from the popular malt milkshake in the combination of flavors which is what gave it the name Milky Way just as he had envisioned Frank's lifetime of refinement was finally ready to pay off it was the Milky Way bar that launched Frank's operation onto the National Market the Milky Way became a gold mine for Frank who had been digging
for decades selling for 5 cents a piece Frank's company made $69,000 in 1923 the first year of operation the following year the Milky Way bar exploded in popularity becoming a nationwide sensation and earning Frank over $800,000 in sales today that would amount to more than $14 billion this meant that for the first time the company could afford to have a full-time sales team to help with expansion he trademarked the name Milky Way as the company's Flagship product that gave him a firm grip over the American candy industry without enough supply for keeping up with demand
Frank was using Hershey's chocolate for coating becoming their biggest customer this was a partnership that would extend through multiple generations and help both companies achieve worldwide success but there was another partnership waiting to be mended in Frank's life and doing so would ensure Mars would reach its full potential the business was booming at the company which became incorporated as Mars Inc it was now time for the business and personal life of Frank Mars to merge for almost three decades he had been estranged from his first son Forest Edward Mars Only visiting him sparingly over the
years Frank lived with his second wife Ethel and their daughter Patricia while his father was building up his chocolate Empire his long-lost son Forest had been raised in Canada by his grandparents on his mother's side he went on to excel in school moving back to the United States and studying at the University of California and then Yale University graduating with top marks and a degree in industrial engineering but like his father forest's true Drive was for business after completing his degree forest was invited to work with his father at the Mars company full-time together they
developed some of their most well-known candies the first was made up of a soft sticky mixture of nougat peanuts and caramel coated in milk chocolate looking for a name for the concoction the Mars Father and Son team took it from their favorite horse its name Snickers like the Milky Way bar Snickers went on to almost immediate success it was seen as a direct response to Hershey's Mr goodar which was filled with roasted peanuts but Mars didn't stop there just a couple of years later the company released the Three Musketeers Bar this time encasing a light
whipped nougat inside their chocolate but after great success Frank and his long estranged son Forest began budding heads Frank didn't have a university education background instead he had tried and failed many times pulling himself up again and again to eventually achieve success but that drive had now faded it was now Forest who wanted to push the limits of the business while Frank aired on the side of conservation Forest had a global vision for the company to expand internationally and become a true Empire while Frank wanted to remain focused on the American Market Forest continued to
experiment with different products as his father once did their conflict couldn't be resolved and Frank paid out Forest to leave the company while away from Mars Forest struck up an unlikely partnership that may have saved the company in 1932 Forest moved to England working for prestigious European chocolate brands like tobler and Nestle with Global Experience under his belt Forest launched Mars Limited in England the Mars Bar was actually first made in England each individually handcrafted in the small town of slow for the first time in its history more than three decades after Frank Clarence Mars
founded the company it was his son Forest that created the soon to be globally recognized marsbar he wanted to make his own Mark with with a unique candy just as his father did with the Milky Way bar the Mars Bar was one of the few chocolate bars allowed to continue being produced during wartime becoming a favorite for soldiers together with their competitor Hershey's marsbar and M&Ms were sent out to Americans on the front lines and once the war finished the candy bar Market exploded putting the now famous Mars Bar into public hands Frank Clarence Mars
had been enjoying the fruits of his labor living on a quiet Farm in Tennessee located nearby the factory of the Milky Way Factory that earned his fortune Frank was accompanied by his beloved horses he built a racing track in 30 Barnes where he and his second wife Ethel raised a number of several racehorses locals referred to the property as Milky Way farm and became a Mainstay of the local economy during the Great Depression it helped a nearby residents avoid the catastrophe faced by most other Americans after only a few years of enjoying his luxurious manner
though in 1935 Franklin C Mars died from a heart condition more than 90 years after his death the farm was restored and opened to the public as a local Landmark as a commemoration to his contributions but back then Frank's death raised a huge question with the patriarch gone who would be left to run the American candy Titan Frank's wife and half brother briefly took over the business but forest's fate beckoned him to return back to the United States and take over the business making quick work of expanding into other markets his experience in Europe gave
him plenty of connections and knowledge over the Atlantic and many products like malteasers were advertised to Europeans as crunchy honeycomb bubbles with a delightful multif flavor Forest expansion crossed into different Industries too moving into pet food with the brand pedigree and Cal grain with Uncle Ben's rice he once said I'm not a candy maker I'm empir minded but at the center of the Empire remained chocolate where Mars went on to develop a product that he based on small chocolate pellets he had seen soldiers eating in Europe these were specially made to be small easy to
consume in different proportions and lightweight he sought investment from Bruce Murray the son of the Hershey corporations executive together the name for Mars and Murray's creation & M was born they were perfectly suited to be Soldier rations and quickly became a favorite of Americans when the product went public after World War II and to prevent copycats they imprinted A large M on each piece the world was fast being introduced to the fruits of Mars's Legacy both forest and Frank committed their lives to candy and developing their own unique products for this reason the business kept
a tight lid on the ingredients recipe and Manufacturing process of all its products in 1993 a Washington Post writer was allowed a small glimpse inside the factory but only to witness how the M was stamped under forest's guidance he turned his father's candies into a multi-billion dollar machine Mars released dozens of products with different products including Skittles Starburst and Munch ensuring that every confectionary is in the world is stocked with the company's products and that the Mars Legacy is continued and since since the death of forest Mars in 1999 the company has remained in the
Mars family left to Forest Edward Mars Jr true to the company's commitment to secrecy forest's death was never officially announced and they have refused to comment on the matter since in 2022 Mars had $45 billion in Revenue which is more than Coca-Cola they employ 130,000 people who call themselves Martians it now has more than 50 Brands to its name including Twix Wrigley's gum Master foods dolmo and Whiskas their expansion into new Fields like healthc care pet care and even scientific research has ensured that the company continues to grow and remain competitive their products are produced
in 60 countries and available in over 200 making Mars one of the most famous candy brands on the planet M&M's became the first candy in space when they were Tak by NASA aboard the space shuttle launch in 1981 and they were planned to be featured in the Blockbuster ET but Mars didn't want to be associated with a strange alien being since its Inception over 90 years ago over 30 billion Mars Bars have been sold globally today more than 3 million are produced every 24 hours out of the top 10 most popular chocolate bars in the
world five of them are made by Mars topping the list with with Snickers and the Empire would have never emerged were it not for the resilience perseverance and passion of Franklin Clarence Mars far from a man of privilege Frank failed several times before finding success but his confidence in his own product and his own abilities eventually conquered these obstacles each time he gambled on himself and it paid off securing the financial safety of his descendants for Generations as he outgrew the business and into retirement he passed the torch to his son the Mars family is
now worth an estimated $94 billion and the third richest in America Frank Clarence Mars survived three failed businesses and still bounced back into the industry his products began in his home Kitchen in Tacoma Washington rooted in the knowledge his mother handed down during his youth
