Family secrets shroud both sides of Mars, Wrigley

By Justin Grant

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Mars Inc's $23 billion deal to buy Wm Wrigley Jr Co (WWY.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) would combine two of the nation's oldest, most successful and least-known corporate families.

Since going public in 1923, a large portion of Wrigley's shares have been controlled by the Wrigley family, but the company has often operated as if it were privately held.

Perhaps taking cues from former Chairman William Wrigley -- the grandson of William Wrigley Jr., who founded the company in 1891 -- management has rarely talked with analysts or reporters.

Over the years, the world's largest gum maker routinely avoided analyst meetings and conference calls that other publicly traded companies typically hold. Analysts were known to attend Wrigley annual meetings because it gave them a rare chance to ask questions of company brass.

The business will likely become even less transparent if regulators approve Mars' bid to create the world's largest confectionary company.

Privately held Mars -- the maker of M&M's, Milky Way candy bars and Skittles -- is even more secretive.

Founded in 1911 in Tacoma, Washington, Mars has thrived from its strong portfolio of sweets.

But the company is so tight-lipped it once told a child who wrote asking how the Milky Way got its name that the information was "classified and confidential," according the 1995 book "Crisis in Candyland."