The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hersbey and Mars

Présentation de l'éditeur Corporate candy giants Milton Hershey and Forrest Mars built business empires out of one of the world's most magical, sought-after substances: chocolate. In The Emperors of Chocolate, Joël Glenn Brenner--the first person to ever gain access to the highly secretive companies of Hershey and Mars--spins a unique story that takes us inside a world as mysterious as Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. Packed with flavorful stories and outrageous characters that give the true scoop on this real-life candyland, The Emperors of Chocolate is a delectable read for business buffs and chocoholics alike. Start reading and you'll soon be hungry for more. Extrait Bar Wars Hershey and Mars both supplied U.S. troops with candy during World War II, trumpeting their efforts in promotions on the home front. Mars, Inc., factory outside Amsterdam, July 31, 1990, just before midnight Theo Leenders hadn't moved from his desk all day. He just sat there, stiff and silent, his eyes riveted to the sleek black telephone in front of him as if his gaze could convince it to ring. He thought the phone call would have surely come through by now. After all, three days had passed since he left his first message for Omar Sharir, the twenty-seven-year-old manager of Mars's Middle East operations. Sharir, a marketing man and fresh recruit Leenders had sent to the region only six weeks earlier, was supposed to be living at the SAS Hotel in Kuwait City while looking for permanent housing and becoming familiar with the sales territory. But no one at the SAS had seen him for days. Leenders had left a half-dozen messages with the hotel operator and had even sent the SAS manager to check Sharir's room, but nothing seemed out of place. Nevertheless, Leenders was worried. Sharir was green and arrogant. Born in Egypt, he spoke fluent Arabic though he had lived most of his life in London. Leenders knew Sharir was a savvy salesman, but he wasn't sure the freshman was ready for a big assignment like Kuwait, where he was to oversee and expand the company's Persian Gulf business. Forrest Mars, Sr., the now-retired patriarch of the Mars empire, seeded this territory in the late 1960s, hiring locals to distribute M&M's, Snickers bars and Uncle Ben's rice to Arab shopkeepers. Now, some twenty years after the Old Man sold his first chocolate bar in the desert, the gulf region accounted for more than $40 million in sales annually, with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia the leading markets. Sharir's job was to keep it that way. His first priority: to convince Kuwaiti merchants to devote precious store space to a new candy bar display, specially designed by Mars engineers. The new display case looked like any ordinary shelf unit, but it was refrigerated, allowing merchants to prominently display Mars chocolates in the heat of the day while the competition's candy stayed buried in the freezer in the back of the store--a distinct advantage for Mars. Sharir was supposed to persuade shopkeepers to make room for the new units by proving that sales of Mars products would be more profitable than sales of chips or sundries, which already crowded the shelves. Sharir was expected to report on his progress daily, but he hadn't called Leenders in Amsterdam since the previous week. Now, at 2 a.m. local time, Leenders was giving up hope. If Sharir didn't reach him by late morning, he would have to call Mars headquarters in McLean, Virginia, and report the young man's disappearance. The thought made him cringe, like he'd eaten a piece of sour candy. Next day, McLean headquarters, just outside Washington, D.C. Edward J. Stegemann was worried and everybody knew it. The finesse and poise that were typical of the well-dressed corporate attorney had vanished in a frenzy of scowling and pacing and barking. "Damn it," he yelled across the open office, his remark aimed at no one in particular and, at the same time, at everyone in the room. "Shit." For three weeks now, Stegemann had