The Chocolate Wars: Inside the Secret Worlds of Mars and Hershey - Hardcover

After eight years of investigation, the first ever account of two of the leviathans of a multi-billion dollar industry penetrates the secretive and cut-throat world of chocolate.

Mars Inc is a multinational, multibillion-dollar empire. Bigger than such corporate giants as McDonald’s and Kellogg, it has 18% of the UK confectionary market led by its most famous eponymous chocolate bar.

Hershey, now its main rival, was once a close ally but after the split Hershey built its success by stealing top executives away from Mars. Now Hershey is suing Mars in federal court, claiming that they have illegally copied the packaging of Hershey’s famous Reese’s Peices for use on Peanut Butter M&Ms.

Since Mars was founded in 1922 by Frank Mars, the family have amassed a fortune reputed to be worth $12.5 billion – the 5th largest in the world. Hershey is now owned by a charitable trust whose profits fund the wealthiest orphanage in the world.

Mars is now run by Frank’s two grandsons and the family values, precepts and eccentricities permeate every aspect of the business. A pinhole in a Snickers is cause enough to destroy an entire production run and until now employees had been forbidden to talk about their work to outsiders.

The CIA once prepared a special report on the Soviet chocolate market for Mars, in violation of its own politics, while in the 1940’s and 50’s Hershey sold chocolate extracts to pep up Coca Cola and improve the flavour of cigarettes.

Never before has there been a detailed account of life behind the previously closed corporate doors of these giants of chocolate, where industrial espionage and covert operations are favourite weapons in the battle for market share...

Forrest Mars and Milton Hershey built empires out of chocolate, largely through the force of their imagination and determination. Based on eight years of investigation, this is the first book to penetrate their secretive companies.

'Washington Post' reporter Joel Glenn Brenner tells the unique story that is chocolate itself. She takes us inside a world as mysterious as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory, where industrial spies jockey for inside information as paranoid executives fight an all-out war for market share...

Forrest Mars is one of the most private and successful entrepreneurs in America. An autocrat, with brilliant – if sometimes unconventional – management strategies, he built one of the world's most innovative companies, a $10 billion dollar a year empire. Milton Hershey was a dreamer who wanted to create not just a company but an industrial paradise, and after an immense fortune the company is now controlled by a charitable trust whose profits fund the wealthiest orphanage in the world.

Never before has so much been revealed about the chocolate industry. Brenner's investigation of this cloistered world is both authoritative and eye-opening. What began as a fraternity of small family-owned businesses has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry increasingly dominated by corporate leviathans fighting for shelf space and swallowing their smaller competitors.

'THE CHOCOLATE WARS' is the best type of business narrative – a revealing engrossing and unforgettable read.

JOEL GLEN BRENNER began reporting on the chocolate business in 1989, when, as a reporter for 'The Washington Post', she was assigned an article on the Mars company. After becoming the first and only journalist to gain access to that company, her 'Washington Post Magazine' cover story on Mars won three prizes, including the Frank C. Porter Memorial Award for Distinguished Labor and Business Reporting and the Washington Dateline Award for Best Business Reporting. She has been recognised five times by the 'Financial News Journalism Reporter' as one of the best financial journalists in the United States under the age of 30. She is a 1989 graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia and now lives in New York.