The move that defines the current period
Mars completed the acquisition of Kellanova for $36 billion, per ConfectioneryNews, making it the largest deal in confectionery and snacking in recent memory. That single transaction added Pringles, Pop-Tarts, and Cheez-It to a portfolio that already spanned M&M's, Snickers, Galaxy, Maltesers, Wrigley gum, and a large pet care business. The result is a company with breadth across impulse, at-home snacking, and functional formats that few rivals can match.
Mars is privately held and does not publish quarterly earnings. So the signals you need to track come from capital commitments, product launches, and disclosed investment programs rather than divisional margin tables. Taken together, they paint a picture of a business spending aggressively to consolidate its position across both traditional confectionery and the broader snacking aisle.
The Kellanova logic
The strategic case for buying Kellanova is straightforward. Confectionery faces structural pressure from cocoa cost volatility, regulatory scrutiny of sugar, and the emerging impact of GLP-1 appetite-suppressing drugs on indulgence habits. Salty snacks and cereal-adjacent formats carry different cost inputs and different regulatory profiles. By adding Kellanova's brands, Mars reduces its dependence on cocoa and gains exposure to categories that tend to hold up better when consumers pull back on treats.
According to ConfectioneryNews, the Kellanova deal follows a pattern Mars established with earlier acquisitions including Wrigley in 2008 and Trü Frü in 2022, each of which moved the company further beyond chocolate and hard sweets into adjacent snacking formats.
What the factory investment signals
A £190 million upgrade at the Slough, England facility runs from 2023 through 2028, per Food Business News. The site, where the original Mars bar was first made in 1932, produces Galaxy and Maltesers today. The investment covers robotics, AI capabilities, advanced cooling systems, and energy-efficient utilities. Digital twin technology powered by AI will optimize production and enable real-time decision-making on the factory floor, according to Mars.
A separate ConfectioneryNews report frames the Slough investment as part of a broader post-Kellanova growth strategy and notes that Mars unveiled a €1 billion European Union investment program the prior year. That is a lot of manufacturing capital being committed across a short window, and it suggests Mars is betting that core chocolate brands remain viable long-term businesses worth modernizing rather than harvesting.
The waste reduction and consistency goals attached to the Slough upgrade also carry a commercial logic beyond efficiency. If cocoa prices stay elevated, squeezing waste out of the production process is one of the few levers a manufacturer controls directly.
Innovation: novelty formats and cocoa-free pilots
On the product side, Mars is pushing into formats that would have looked unusual for a heritage confectionery company a decade ago. Current launches include M&M's POP'd Caramel, a freeze-dried candy; Twix Bits, a bite-sized version of the classic bar; Skittles Gummies Fuego in a "swicy" (sweet and spicy) profile; and 5 Gum Evolution, which changes flavor from sour to sweet berry during consumption, per ConfectioneryNews. The same report notes Mars is also rolling out RXBar Protein Energy Bites, pointing toward functional snacking as a separate growth lane.
The most structurally significant move may be smaller in scale but larger in implication. Mars is piloting a cocoa-free chocolate alternative under the Balisto brand at German retailer Rewe, running from April to October 2026, per FoodNavigator. The product uses ChoViva, a fermented sunflower-seed ingredient from German start-up Planet A Foods, which also has contracts with Barry Callebaut and Nestlé. As the report notes, this is Mars' first move into cocoa-free chocolate. A limited pilot in one retailer in one country is not a strategic pivot, but it is a hedge, and the fact that Mars is now testing alongside Nestlé and Barry Callebaut signals that the cocoa-free conversation has moved from fringe to mainstream across the industry's biggest players.
What competitors are doing
The competitive backdrop makes Mars' investment pace easier to understand. Ferrero is launching 10 seasonal and limited-edition products under the revived Wonka brand this autumn, tied to an exclusive global partnership with Netflix, per ConfectioneryNews. That is an entertainment-led strategy for driving trial and incremental sales, one that Mars has not matched directly but that it is competing with through novelty formats and sensory differentiation.
The wider Big Food landscape is notable for what others are choosing not to do. Unilever is merging its foods business with McCormick in a deal valued at over $40 billion, per The Sunday Times, but the transaction triggered an immediate share price fall and a high-profile investor exit. The contrast with Mars' approach is striking. Mars is buying into snacking and investing in manufacturing. Unilever is selling out of food and facing a shareholder revolt. Those are two very different reads on where food and snacking sit in a consumer portfolio.
What to watch next
The Balisto cocoa-free pilot ends in October 2026. Whether Mars extends it, widens distribution, or quietly shelves it will be a meaningful indicator of how seriously the company is considering cocoa alternatives at scale. Watch also for any signal on the broader €1 billion EU investment program, including which facilities receive capital after Slough, and whether the Kellanova brand portfolio starts generating separate growth disclosures now that integration is underway. For category managers in confectionery, the question is not whether Mars is active. It clearly is. The question is which formats and geographies it prioritizes in the next twelve months, and whether the cocoa-free pilot is the start of a broader reformulation agenda or a one-market experiment that goes no further.