Mars Brands: What It Owns in Chocolate, Food and Pet Care

Mars owns brands including M&M's, Snickers, Twix, Skittles, Royal Canin, Pedigree and Ben's Original. It also owns veterinary businesses and, following its completed Kellanova acquisition, Pringles and Cheez-It. Mars is owned by the Mars family, not Nestlé.

The table is a guide to familiar brands and businesses, not an exhaustive list of every regional label. Check the market as well as the name when tracing a product's owner.

What does Mars own?

Sources: Mars's brand directory and its Kellanova completion announcement. Different brands cover different markets; a global portfolio does not mean every product is sold everywhere.

Is Mars owned by Nestlé?

No. Mars describes itself as a family-owned business. Mars and Nestlé are separate groups. The fact that both sell chocolate and pet food does not make one a subsidiary of the other.

For example, moving between Mars-owned chocolate labels keeps your spending within Mars. Moving to a Nestlé brand changes the group, but still calls for a separate assessment of the alternative. See our Nestlé ownership guide and Nestlé's company evidence.

Who owns Maltesers, M&M's and Snickers?

All three belong to Mars. They have distinct recipes, packaging and marketing, but those differences do not establish independent parent ownership. The same principle applies to other names in the chocolate-and-sweets row above.

Does Mars own Pringles and Kellogg's?

Mars completed its acquisition of Kellanova on 11 December 2025. Its completion announcement identifies Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, Rice Krispies Treats, RXBAR and Kellogg's international cereal business among the acquired portfolio.

That does not mean Mars acquired every business using the Kellogg name. WK Kellogg Co was a separate company: Ferrero completed its acquisition on 26 September 2025. Ferrero's transaction announcement describes that cereal business's scope as the United States, Canada and the Caribbean.

The country and the business matter here. An old Kellogg ownership chart, or a blanket statement that Mars owns all Kellogg's cereal, misses that split.

Mars pet-care brands and veterinary businesses

Mars's interests extend beyond the food aisle to veterinary care and diagnostics. This is useful information when comparing a pet-food brand with the business behind a clinic: different services can connect to the same parent.

Ownership alone cannot tell you whether a particular veterinary treatment is appropriate, a clinic is well run or a food suits your pet. Those decisions require evidence about the service or product itself. Likewise, global ownership is not a promise of local availability or identical formulations.

Is Mars publicly traded?

No. Mars, Incorporated is privately held, so there is no ordinary Mars share listing on a public stock exchange. A ticker search for a similarly named company is not a reliable route to owning this business.

Private ownership also does not mean there is no public evidence to assess. Corporate disclosures, relevant regulatory records and named sourcing programmes can still be examined. They should be judged for their scope and support rather than accepted or dismissed solely because of ownership structure.

What should shoppers do with this list?

First identify what you want to change: the parent receiving your spending, a sourcing practice, an ingredient, packaging or a service. Then check whether the proposed alternative actually changes that thing.

Our PepsiCo and Unilever guides map other large portfolios. For public companies covered by Mashinii, search the score database and inspect the dated evidence behind each value rather than treating a different logo as proof of better conduct.

Ownership sources reviewed on 8 October 2026. The Kellanova and WK Kellogg transactions are separate completed acquisitions.