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pavlov | on: Mars Bar from 1991 found – and it's 20g bigger than today's
I was surprised to learn the Mars bar familiar from my childhood wasn't a product of the original American corporation Mars Inc.

Frank Mars founded the American company. His son Forrest invented Milky Way, but then eventually quarreled with his dad and was removed from the business. Forrest moved to England, founded his own company, and the Mars bar was his first product: a European version of Milky Way.

Later he inherited the original American business and merged the UK one into it.

jermaustin1 | parent | next
I'd love an HBO "Succession" style dramatization of this. I've always found family businesses so interesting. My first job was working directly for a perpetually "near-retirement" 70 year old man, that never stepped down. His son formed a rival agency, lawyers got involved. The old man carved out a niche from his agency and let the son run it (into the ground).

When the old man eventually died around 80 year old, he left the business 51% to his wife and 49% to his son, so the mom could keep him in check.

When she passed a few years later, the son got it all, and within a few years, they were completely out of business, and the son sold it for pennies.

All of this is secondhand from the head accountant (that had been there since the 80s) that the son fired immediately upon taking full control of the company. It really was a drama that should have been on television.

duderific | root | parent | next
There is a cable show "The Food that Built America" where they do discuss the candy bar battles of the early 20th century, and specifically the Mars family drama. It's not to the production level of an HBO show, but pretty entertaining nonetheless.
seanalltogether | root | parent | next
It makes you wonder how many companies were sold to private equity to avoid having to leave control to a family member. I know of a very large company that was until recently family owned, and the kids work as executives in the company, and yet it was sold to private investors.
sebmellen | root | parent
If you can pull off the sale, it’s certainly a “safer” option to leave your family with cash & equities than a frail single business.
WorldMaker | root | parent
I have also wondered what sort of dramatizations could come out of Mars, Inc, though I also wonder if there are weird classified twists that won't come out easily. Or at least if you were writing the fictional dramatization there's a rich room to play with the idea of what was really going on in that Chocolate Factory. With Mars, Inc. a private family company headquartered in McLean, VA, it's almost hard not to imagine some complicated history with the CIA as well. The UK branch spin off sounds like a reverse Kingsman/Statesman plot if you assume some spycraft in the company's history.

(Rival Hershey's ties to Pennsylvania history/culture similarly leaves ideas for National Treasure-style conspiracies in the chocolate world in the early history of control over the national identity.)

Free silly plot ideas for Hollywood or a graphic novelist hoping for Hollywood adaptation opportunities.

bufordtwain | parent | next
Chris Spargo video that covers some of this history: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6h1Al7pJf4
secondcoming | parent
There's a Milky Way in the UK/Ireland that's completely different to the Mars bar.
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