Slough was the birthplace of the iconic MARS bar and the launch pad of the Mars business outside the USA. In 1932, Forrest E. Mars set up his embryonic factory here and started not just a confectionery company but a global marketing empire and a whole new business culture.
Although privately owned, Mars Confections was, from the very beginning, an egalitarian workplace, with an open office close to the production area. Everyone clocked in, no matter how senior. Here, from this initially modest enterprise, the Five Principles, central to the unique Mars way of working, emerged.
MARS bars were made and packed by hand to a secret recipe, which Forrest brought in his pocket from America. Starting with just one food mixer and working on long wooden tables he employed ‘spreaders’, ‘strippers’, ‘dippers’ and ‘toppers’ to make his innovative new confectionery. The MARS bar quickly rivalled the established block chocolate products of competitors such as Cadbury and Rowntree. It was hard physical work to exacting standards for a small team – from a start-up with just four associates, 100 people were working for Mars at the end of its first year.
The new business grew fast, moving to bigger premises in 1933. MILKY WAY and MALTESERS followed soon, only to be halted during the war. Seen as a good food source of energy, MARS bar production continued and the confectionery was supplied to allied troops all over the world.
The company name changed to Mars Ltd in 1947. With food rationing over, BOUNTY was launched in the 1950s, followed by GALAXY in 1961 and TOPIC a year later. REVELS, TWIX and MARATHON – now SNICKERS – were also 60s creations. GALAXY MINSTRELS arrived in 1976, TRACKER was launched in 1985 and M&M’s reached the UK in the late 80s. CELEBRATIONS, the innovative first miniature versions of top confectionery brands was launched in 1997.
Mars also made famous sugar sweets, including SPANGLES, TUNES, LOCKETS and OPAL FRUITS - now STARBURST. In 1961 a separate sugar factory opened in Liverpool Road. It closed in 2006 and the whole sugar business passed to Wrigley following the companies’ merger in 2009.
Mars was famous for innovation both in production and marketing. It was one of the first companies to use TV advertising, with advertisements featuring Bob Monkhouse in 1955. The famous ‘A MARS a day helps you work, rest and play®’ strapline was born in 1959.
A big innovation from Mars at the end of the 80s was not in confectionery but in ice cream. Mars changed this market for ever with the introduction of ice cream versions of its famous confectionery in 1989.
The business saw the advantage of event sponsorship and took on the Mars Marathon in 1984, continuing for five years. Then followed sponsorship of the Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme and later the national home teams for football and the British Olympic team. The company sponsored Euro ‘96 in the UK and the MARS bar famously became ‘BELIEVE’ to back England in the 2006 World Cup.
As one of the biggest Slough employers, a household name and an influential business, Mars has always been closely involved with its local community, joining the Slough Community Centre and the Slough Social Fund in the 50s. In 1983 it started to sponsor the Berkshire Awards for the Environment, from which much of today’s Mars in the Community work has sprung.
Today, the Slough business that Forrest E. Mars built is still the company’s home of chocolate; a centre of excellence with over 1000 associates making three million MARS bars a day.
