Mars, Inc

choi

Annie Gasparro, Inside the Mars, Inc Candy Machine; Closely held maker of M&M’s and Snickers doesn’t live by chocolate alone, grows without catering to Wall Street. Wall Street Journal, OPct 30, 2014.
online.wsj.com/articles/at-mars-inc-fun-size-chocolate-and-right-size-conglomerate-1414602664

Quote:

"The duo [Mars and Hershey] dominate the market, with a combined share of nearly two thirds.

"Founded by Frank C. Mars, who started making candy in his Tacoma, Wash., kitchen in 1911, it now is also one of the world’s biggest purveyors of dog food and other pet-care products. It also owns the Wm Wrigley Jr Co. stable of gums and confections, and produces a pantry-full of other products, from Uncle Ben’s rice to Pamesello grated cheese to Flavia coffee. Still owned by its founder’s descendants, Mars is one of the largest closely held companies in the US.

"Chocolate is Mars’s second-biggest business globally, after pet care.

"The [Topeka] plant employs about 200 people, although it takes only two to monitor each production line. Mr Spangler says the basic process of making chocolate candy hasn’t changed much over the decades, but it has become much more automated: 'What would take a 50-year-old factory 15 tools and two hours to fix, it could take us the touch of a screen,' he said.

Note:
(a) Topeka, Kansas
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topeka,_Kansas
(capita of the state; The meaning of Topeka is unknown and unrecorded)
(b)
(i) “'You’d be surprised how similar pet-food and chocolate factories are,' said Bret Spangler, director of the [Mars'] Topeka plant * * * 'Pet-food ones have to be just as clean—you could eat off the floor—and the kibbles have to have the right density and look.'"

kibble (n and v; origin unknown): "coarsely ground meal or grain (as for animal feed)"
/www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kibble
(ii) Not to be confused with Keebler Company
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keebler_Company
(Godfrey Keebler, of German descent, opened a bakery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1853)
(iii)
(A) Keebler is "Americanized spelling of German Kiebler [which is a variant Kübler] of or Kübler (see Kuebler)."
(B) The German surname Kuebler signifies "a cooper, from an agent derivative of Middle High German kübel ‘tub’, ‘vat’, ‘barrel.’"