KIND and Mars Announce Next Step in Partnership to Build a Kinder World and Bring Healthy Snacks to People Worldwide

Mars to acquire KIND North America; Partnership will build on growth across geographies and categories

Founder Daniel Lubetzky retains ongoing financial stake and remains focused on upholding and expanding the KIND Promise to build foremost health and wellness platform

MCLEAN, Va. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mars, Incorporated, a family-owned global pet food, veterinary care, confectionery, snacking and food business, and KIND, a healthy snacking leader, today announced the next step in their strategic partnership, with Mars acquiring KIND North America.

KIND North America will join KIND International to create one organization operating across 35 countries, functioning as a distinct and separate business within the Mars Family of Companies. This provides the opportunity to further the KIND Promise, a set of nutrition principles that have guided the company’s innovation since its founding, and KIND’s mission to create a kinder world.

KIND Founder and Executive Chairman Daniel Lubetzky will play a key role in the future development and expansion of KIND, helping to maximize the reach and impact of the KIND mission and products, while upholding the KIND Promise as the brand expands into new categories and geographies. He will retain an ongoing financial stake in KIND, a majority of which was previously donated to charity to further his philanthropic efforts to build bridges across lines of divide.

Partnership Success

Over the past three years, Mars and KIND have partnered to bring KIND (including signature KIND Bars) into new geographies and categories, remaining true to the KIND Promise that the first and predominant ingredient in all of its snacks and foods is a nutrient-dense food. As a result of the partnership, KIND has expanded into more than 35 countries (including China, Germany and France) and into eight total categories (including frozen and refrigerated), and has launched new products such as KIND Bark, KIND Frozen Bars and KIND Smoothie Bowls.

Grant F. Reid, CEO of Mars said: “When we began this partnership, I said it was one built on mutual admiration and a shared vision for growth. After three years, you can see the impact, as together we have grown the healthy snacking category and brought KIND and the KIND Promise to 35 countries and into new categories. We’re delighted to continue to build on this success and welcome KIND North America into the Mars Family of Companies.”

“I am so proud of how well the Mars and KIND teams have complemented and strengthened each other over the past three years,” Lubetzky said. “We are now well positioned to further advance our efforts and continue building a foremost health and wellness platform. As we said in 2017, Mars is a company that shares KIND’s passion for business as a force for good, and I am confident that together, we will be able to make our small contribution to make this world a little kinder.”

Commitment to KIND Promise

KIND remains committed to its Promise and mission and will further its purpose to build a kinder world one snack and one act at a time by committing to being:

• Kinder to our bodies: KIND will add more than 2 billion servings of nutrient dense foods to people’s diets by 2025
• Kinder to our planet: KIND will exclusively source 100 percent of its almonds from bee friendly farms by 2025
• Kinder to our communities: KIND will continue to break down barriers to create more inclusive and empathetic communities

About Mars, Incorporated

For more than a century, Mars, Incorporated has been driven by the belief that the world we want tomorrow starts with how we do business today. This idea is at the center of who we have always been as a global, family-owned business. Today, Mars is transforming, innovating and evolving in ways that affirm our commitment to making a positive impact on the world around us.

Across our diverse and expanding portfolio of confectionery, food, and petcare products and services, we employ 133,000 dedicated Associates who are all moving in the same direction: forward. With $40 billion in annual sales, we produce some of the world’s best-loved brands including DOVE®, EXTRA®, M&M’s®, MILKY WAY®, SNICKERS®, TWIX®, ORBIT®, PEDIGREE®, ROYAL CANIN®, SKITTLES®, BEN’S ORIGINAL™, WHISKAS®, COCOAVIA®, and 5™; and take care of half of the world’s pets through our pet health services AniCura, Banfield Pet Hospitals™, BluePearl®, Linnaeus, Pet Partners™, and VCA™.

We know we can only be truly successful if our partners and the communities in which we operate prosper as well. The Mars Five Principles – Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency and Freedom – inspire our Associates to take action every day to help create a world tomorrow in which the planet, its people and pets can thrive.

For more information about Mars, please visit www.mars.com. Join us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.

About KIND

Since 2004, KIND has been on a mission to create a kinder and healthier world – one snack and one act at a time. Its iconic KIND® bars – made with real, recognizable ingredients – sparked the growth of an entirely new healthy snacking category. Today, KIND has a family of more than 100 snacks that offer solutions for a variety of occasions. All of KIND’s products lead with a nutrient-dense first ingredient – whole nuts, whole grains or whole fruit – and do not contain genetically engineered ingredients, sugar alcohols or artificial sweeteners.

Inspired by the belief that acts of kindness can be a transformative force for good, both the KIND brand and The KIND Foundation seek to inspire kindness and empathy. KIND was founded by Daniel Lubetzky. To learn more about KIND, please visit www.kindsnacks.com and join us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube.