Businessman dedicated to quality
When Forrest Mars Sr took up the mantle of running Mars Inc – the confectionery giant and creator of the popular Mars and Milky Way chocolate bars – he became known for his rigorous and occasionally terrifying leadership style.
So fanatical was he about quality that when he spotted an illwrapped Milky Way bar in a shop in Slough, Berkshire – home to Mars Inc’s European headquarters – he summoned the company’s management into the boardroom and hurled a box of Milky Ways at a glass panel, one by one.
He was also known to ring sales associates in the middle of the night if he found a packet of M&Ms where the ‘‘M’’ was not perfectly positioned.
Desperate to impress his overbearing father, who was dubbed ‘‘the Howard Hughes of candyland’’, Forrest Mars Jr sought to emulate this obsessive attention to detail.
Together with his siblings John and Jacqueline, he built the family enterprise into one of America’s largest private companies, diversifying into 70 countries and increasing its sales from $1 billion to $35 billion. It became the biggest sweet company in Britain after Cadbury.
The dynasty was founded in 1911 by Frank Mars, Forrest Jr’s grandfather, who started making and selling butter cream candy from his kitchen in Tacoma, Washington (as a boy he had been taught how to hand-dip chocolate by his mother). Frank’s son, Forrest Sr, joined the business in 1929, around the time it confected the malt-flavoured nougat found in Milky Way and Snickers bars. In 1936 Mars Inc introduced Maltesers chocolate balls to Europe, and over the years also added M&Ms and Skittles to its list of sugary products.
It expanded to produce nonsweet foods, such as Uncle Ben’s rice, and pet foods including Pedigree and Whiskas.
Forrest Edward Mars Jr was born in 1931 in Oak Park, Illinois, to Audrey and Forrest Mars Sr.
After attending Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut, he took a bachelor of science degree at Yale and went to New York university to complete an MBA.
It was said that at mealtimes Forrest Sr would quiz his children on their achievements, frequently telling them they could do better. Forrest Jr had to work hard to earn the trust of his father, a brash and irascible man who was anxious about his son taking over the company. To prove his business credentials, Forrest Jr served as a finance officer in the US army and worked as an auditor for PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York before joining the family company – then a business of less than dollars 100 million in revenue – in 1959.
He oversaw the opening of its new headquarters in Washington DC, and was then given the responsibility of building and managing its first confectionary plant in Veghel, the Netherlands.
Disaster struck when the plant caught fire three days before it was scheduled to open; it was an incident that was beyond his control but for which he had to apologise repeatedly to his father.
In 1966 he moved to Neuilly-surSeine, a chic suburb of Paris, to become managing director of Mars France. Seven years later Forrest Sr retired and appointed a former Unilever director as his temporary replacement, until his children could take over; he died at the age of 95.
While in France Forrest Jr built up the firm’s pet-food business and in 1975 – by which time he had returned to the US and Mars Inc’s net sales were just over $1 billion — he and his brother became copresidents of the company. Along with their younger sister Jacqueline, who later joined as an executive, they expanded its presence first in Europe, Australia and Japan, and then in Russia, China, Mexico, Brazil and the Middle East.
The siblings rarely took holidays and strove to uphold their father’s business ethos, which they referred to as ‘‘The Five Principles of Mars’’ — quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and freedom. Writing memos and delivering elaborate presentations were considered a waste of valuable time. Every morning Forrest Jr and John would punch a time clock as they arrived at work to demonstrate that they were bound by the same rules as their factory staff. Employees were paid aboveaverage wages, but loyalty was demanded in return. Cleanliness at factories was something of an obsession for the brothers; conveyor belts had to gleam.
Candid and approachable, Forrest Jr valued those who spoke their mind. He ran the business with a diverse and international outlook in every sense, once hiring a Frenchman who barely spoke English but who he felt deserved a chance to pick up the language. With his sharp mind and entrepreneurial flair, he did not shy away from taking risks. After he retired in 1999 he continued to advise Mars Inc and was a member of the board of directors until 2006. His brother retired in 2001.
His first wife was Virginia Cretella, with whom he had four daughters.
All are involved in Mars Inc: Victoria is chairman of the board; Valerie is senior vice-president and head of corporate development; Pamela was managing director at Mars Australia and, after returning to the US, joined the board of directors; and Marieke works in the company’s pet-food operations.
In 1990 he divorced Virginia and married Deborah Adair Clarke, but this marriage also ended in divorce in 2010. His third wife, Jacomien Ford, survives him.
Despite their astronomical wealth the Mars brothers both lived modestly, with one executive suggesting, ‘‘Deep down, they believe they are poor. It’s as though they don’t believe they deserve better.’’ It was perhaps the result of their frugal childhood: they were not given an allowance, fancy cars, expensive clothes or even sweets because their father was afraid of spoiling them. Employees at Mars were reportedly not allowed to mention Forrest Sr’s name.
According to the 2016 Sunday Times Rich List, the collective fortune of Forrest Jr and his siblings was $58.3 billion, making them the third richest family in the world. Recent figures suggest Forrest Jr’s personal net worth was $25.5 billion, with Forbes citing him as the 18th richest man in America.
He moved to a small ranch in Sheridan, Wyoming, where he spent his retirement and became a leading philanthropist: he was a generous supporter of environmental preservation projects such as the American Prairie Reserve. A noted history buff, he filled the shelves of his home with biographies of American presidents. He was also a good cook whose specialities included steak and a lavish breakfast. Slender and physically fit — despite having a sweet tooth — he seemed to radiate energy, with travel and exploration among his greatest passions.
He would set off in his icebreaker ship to the wildest parts of the globe: he navigated the Northwest Passage and joined a trip for students from his old school, Hotchkiss, to Antarctica.
His lifestyle bore no trace of pretentiousness, and he loved the tranquility of Wyoming.
Guests who visited him at his ranch in Sheridan would be greeted at the airport by a figure standing next to his pick-up truck, inevitably wearing an M&M baseball cap.