Billionaire Forrest Mars Jnr, enigmatic steward of global chocolate bar empire, dies at 84

Forrest E. Mars Jnr, who helped build his family’s candy making empire into one of the richest businesses in the world, stocking treat jars around the globe with Mars Bars, Snickers and M&Ms while maintaining the company’s tradition of extreme secrecy, died July 26 at a hospital in Seattle. He was 84.

The cause was complications from a heart attack. His death was announced by Mars Inc, the McLean, Virginia-based company where Mars and his brother, John, took over from their father, Forrest E. Mars Snr, as co-presidents in 1973. Forrest Jnr retired in 1999.

Mars’s grandfather, a small-time confectioner named Frank Mars, founded Mars in 1922. The company exploded over the next two generations into a global powerhouse of candy bars, pantry items and pet foods.

The company credited Forrest Jnr, John and their sister, Jacqueline, with increasing sales from US$1 billion to US$35 billion and with employing 80,000 people in 78 countries. According to Forbes magazine, the Mars family, with an estimated worth of US$78 billion, is the third-richest in the United States, behind only the Waltons of Walmart and the Kochs of Koch Industries.

Besides the Mars Bar - marketed in the United States as the Milky Way - Mars’s sweets brands include 3 Musketeers, Twix, Starbust, Skittles and Dove ice-cream bars. Since its purchase in 2008 of the Wrigley chewing-gum company for US$23 billion, Mars also has produced Wrigley’s Doublemint gum, Life Savers and Altoids mints.

In the breakfast and main-meal categories, Mars products include Flavia coffee and Uncle Ben’s rice. Among its canine and feline offerings are the Pedigree, Iams, Whiskas, Royal Canin and Eukanuba brands of pet food.