- Source of Wealth: Food (Candy, Pet Food, Chocolates)
- Nationality: United States
- Occupation: Businessman
Frank C. Mars was the creator of Mars company, building up the $127 billion wealth of the Mars family members today. He was born in Glenwood, Pope County, Minnesota. In 1883, he contracted polio, which prevented him from attending school. So his mother, Elva, taught him how to work around the kitchen and, most importantly, taught him how to hand-dip chocolate. Since he was 19 , Mars had been has been selling Taylor’s Molasses Chips in Minnesota. From there, the passion turned into a business, and now it is the world’s largest confectionery company: Mars achieves a turnover of about $27.5 billion a year.
Popular brands created by Mars include the Milky Way bar (created by Frank.C Mars’s wife Ethel in 1923), M&Ms (400 million are produced in the firm’s American plants daily) and the Snickers bar (allegedly named after their favorite family horse). The multi-billion-dollar company is also responsible for the Mars Bar, 3 Musketeers and Twix candies.
The company is 107-years-old and has helped the Mars family accumulate a fortune of $127 billion. The six family members, all who rank on the Forbes 400 list, get $72 billion of that fortune each, making them America’s third-richest family, according to the Institute for Policy Studies “Billionaire Bonanza” report.
When Forrest Sr. died in 1999, his three children, John, Jacqueline, and Forrest Jr. Mars —inherited the company. Unfortunately Forrest Jr. passed away in 2016, so Jacqueline and John co-own the company today. However, they do not run the day-to-day operations Mars Inc. They, together, have the biggest share of the family fortune, with $24 billion each.
The Mars company soon began to manufacture pet food, with brands like the widely known Pedigree and Whiskas among them. The family has managed to avoid the limelight, as they have been known to keep their company and their headquarters “anonymous”. However, the company made headlines in 2008 by making a joint purchase of Wrigley, the chewing gum company, with Warren Buffet for $23 billion.
Jacqueline Mars is the sibling with a lifestyle that ”reflects” her billionaire status, according to Jan Pottker of The Washingtonian in 2008. She reportedly listed her estate in New Jersey for $US2 million and has a place called “Stone Hall Farm” in Virginia. She also maintains her mother’s Watergate penthouse. Like her family, Jacqueline still maintains privacy for the most part.
With a $35 billion firm, Mars is third largest private business in the United States, and it was previously ranked as the best place to work by Fortune magazine. Mars attributes its success to the five principles that were created by Pamela Mars: quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and freedom.
SOURCES : Business Insider, Visual Capitalist, Mars.com, Richmondfed
This article was updated on March 11, 2021 by Vanessa Shumbanhete