Take a tour of the Mars Chocolate office, where life-sized M&M's greet you at the door with free candy
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Jul 26, 2021, 12:46 IST
Four friendly M&Ms greet you at the main entrance of the building.
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Of the 16,000 Mars Chocolate employees around the globe, about 1,200 of them are in Hackettstown.
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Mars Chocolate produces 29 candy brands in total, including the billion-dollar global brands M&M's, Snickers, Dove, Milky Way, and Twix. The Mars Chocolate North America campus is also home to the M&Ms factory, where 50% of all M&Ms sold in the US are made. When you walk through the front doors of the office building, giant M&M's greet you with bins of complimentary candy.
The Hackettstown M&Ms factory opened in 1958. The Mars Chocolate office was added to the plant in 1979.
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The M&Ms brand was first launched in 1940. Today, the Hackettstown plant produces M&M's Milk Chocolate, M&M's Minis, and Peanut M&M's, as well as 21 different colors and custom print M&M's.
Not too surprisingly, snacks are free for employees. The office has multiple vending machines. To get a snack, you just select the item you want and it comes flying out — no cash required!
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Of course the free candy is a great perk," notes one employee. "But what makes this a truly wonderful place to work is the sense of family. Also, the culture is unlike anywhere else. People who work here often stay for a very long time — sometimes their entire career. And their kids will come work here. And then their grandkids. That says something about the company.
Between 10% to 15% of the associates who work at the Hackettstown campus are generational associates, meaning a family member preceded them at the plant or office.
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During our tour, various associates commented on the "unmatched" culture, and reiterated the importance of Mars' five principals: quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency, and freedom to span generations, geographies, languages, and cultures.
Mars offers a volunteer program called MVP (Mars Volunteer Program). Employees are encouraged to give back on a local, national, and/or global scale. In 2015, over 2,200 Mars Chocolate associates volunteered for more than 7,000 hours.
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It's also a very collaborative environment," says an employee. "We all work together in some capacity.
The open office is approximately 100,000 square feet.
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"We're very open and transparent," says an employee. "Even our conference room walls are clear glass!" she jokes.
Each conference room is named and themed after a chocolate product.
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Everywhere you go, you see candy!
The office also features a cafeteria, which offers employees gourmet meals.
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We take health and wellness seriously here," says an employee. "We think of chocolate as a treat ... something you indulge in occasionally.
The campus is 104 acres. "You'll regularly find employees taking a walk around campus to get some exercise," says an associate.
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The M&Ms factory, a 460,000-square-foot facility, is a short walk from the office. The sweet chocolate aroma seeps out of thefactory and hits you as you exit the office building. We didn't mind it one bit.