Grant Reid, the chief govt who expanded Mars from confectionery and pet meals into veterinary companies and more healthy snacks, is leaving after eight years of what the family-owned US firm referred to as “unprecedented” progress.
Poul Weihrauch, who now runs Mars Petcare, will take over as CEO on the finish of September, the corporate introduced on Wednesday, with Reid retiring on the finish of the yr.
The intensely non-public, Virginia-based group marked the succession with a partial glimpse into its monetary metrics, saying its annual gross sales had grown greater than 50 per cent in Reid’s tenure, from greater than $28bn to virtually $45bn.
That will put Mars’ income forward of Coca-Cola and would far outstrip the income progress reported by different world shopper items corporations akin to Nestlé, Unilever or Mondelez over the identical interval.
Some teams have responded to the problem of delivering constant natural gross sales progress by shedding elements of their portfolios, akin to Kraft Heinz’s sale of its Planters peanuts model, or by breaking apart, as Kellogg proposed this week.
Mars additionally hinted on the sooner progress in petcare that had led it at hand the reins to that division’s head at a time when a shift to more healthy snacking has led to lacklustre progress in world confectionery gross sales.
Weihrauch, initially from Denmark, had doubled petcare gross sales since being put in control of the division behind Iams and Whiskas in 2014, the group stated, establishing it because the business’s largest firm and lifting the share of revenues coming from companies from 5 per cent to twenty per cent.
A few of that progress has come from acquisitions. Mars has owned pet meals manufacturers since 1935, however Reid and Weihrauch oversaw a significant growth of its veterinary enterprise, together with 2017’s $9.1bn buy of VCA, a bunch of 800 petcare hospitals, and pushed the enterprise into Europe. Half of the group’s 140,000 associates, or staff, now work for the veterinary enterprise.
Reid’s impending retirement elicited very uncommon public feedback from two remaining members of the Mars household’s third era, who described the Scottish-born outgoing CEO as a pal who had made essential modifications to the enterprise.
“His values and character align so effectively with the household, and he has an exquisite sense of humour that helped carry us by some tough challenges,” stated Jacqueline Mars, 82. John Mars, 86, hailed his “wholesome dissatisfaction for the established order”.
Forbes places the Mars household’s wealth at $94bn, estimating that it’s America’s third-wealthiest dynasty after the Waltons and the Kochs.
Regardless of a protracted historical past of secrecy, Mars has sought to be extra communicative underneath fourth-generation members of the family together with Victoria Mars and Stephen Badger.
As CEO, Reid appeared to galvanise different enterprise leaders to deal with the results of local weather change. Mars pledged final yr to attain web zero emissions by 2050.
His tenure additionally included the US group dropping executives to JAB Holding, the Luxembourg-based non-public funding group, inflicting tensions that briefly spilled into the open in 2020 when Mars sued JAB and one of many executives over an alleged theft of petcare commerce secrets and techniques. JAB denied the claims and the case was ultimately referred to arbitration.
Grant Reid, the chief govt who expanded Mars from confectionery and pet meals into veterinary companies and more healthy snacks, is leaving after eight years of what the family-owned US firm referred to as “unprecedented” progress.
Poul Weihrauch, who now runs Mars Petcare, will take over as CEO on the finish of September, the corporate introduced on Wednesday, with Reid retiring on the finish of the yr.
The intensely non-public, Virginia-based group marked the succession with a partial glimpse into its monetary metrics, saying its annual gross sales had grown greater than 50 per cent in Reid’s tenure, from greater than $28bn to virtually $45bn.
That will put Mars’ income forward of Coca-Cola and would far outstrip the income progress reported by different world shopper items corporations akin to Nestlé, Unilever or Mondelez over the identical interval.
Some teams have responded to the problem of delivering constant natural gross sales progress by shedding elements of their portfolios, akin to Kraft Heinz’s sale of its Planters peanuts model, or by breaking apart, as Kellogg proposed this week.
Mars additionally hinted on the sooner progress in petcare that had led it at hand the reins to that division’s head at a time when a shift to more healthy snacking has led to lacklustre progress in world confectionery gross sales.
Weihrauch, initially from Denmark, had doubled petcare gross sales since being put in control of the division behind Iams and Whiskas in 2014, the group stated, establishing it because the business’s largest firm and lifting the share of revenues coming from companies from 5 per cent to twenty per cent.
A few of that progress has come from acquisitions. Mars has owned pet meals manufacturers since 1935, however Reid and Weihrauch oversaw a significant growth of its veterinary enterprise, together with 2017’s $9.1bn buy of VCA, a bunch of 800 petcare hospitals, and pushed the enterprise into Europe. Half of the group’s 140,000 associates, or staff, now work for the veterinary enterprise.
Reid’s impending retirement elicited very uncommon public feedback from two remaining members of the Mars household’s third era, who described the Scottish-born outgoing CEO as a pal who had made essential modifications to the enterprise.
“His values and character align so effectively with the household, and he has an exquisite sense of humour that helped carry us by some tough challenges,” stated Jacqueline Mars, 82. John Mars, 86, hailed his “wholesome dissatisfaction for the established order”.
Forbes places the Mars household’s wealth at $94bn, estimating that it’s America’s third-wealthiest dynasty after the Waltons and the Kochs.
Regardless of a protracted historical past of secrecy, Mars has sought to be extra communicative underneath fourth-generation members of the family together with Victoria Mars and Stephen Badger.
As CEO, Reid appeared to galvanise different enterprise leaders to deal with the results of local weather change. Mars pledged final yr to attain web zero emissions by 2050.
His tenure additionally included the US group dropping executives to JAB Holding, the Luxembourg-based non-public funding group, inflicting tensions that briefly spilled into the open in 2020 when Mars sued JAB and one of many executives over an alleged theft of petcare commerce secrets and techniques. JAB denied the claims and the case was ultimately referred to arbitration.
