Mars invests $30 million to expand Waco, Texas facility

Company will add 65,000 sq. ft. to plant that produces Snickers, Skittles and Starbursts.

Mars Wrigley Confectionery has broken ground on a 65,000-sq.-ft. expansion of its Waco, Texas, facility to better meet its distribution needs. Photo from Mars Wrigley Confectionery.

The continued growth in demand for Snickers, Skittles and Starbursts is prompting Chicago-based Mars Wrigley Confectionery to invest $30 million in expanding its Waco, Texas facility.

According to the Waco Herald-Tribune, Dan Braswell, Mars’ site director for the plant, said the addition will primarily be used to meet distribution needs, although he did not rule out the possibility of installing additional production equipment in remarks made during a groundbreaking ceremony held Monday. The expansion will increase the size of the plant, which was built in 1976, to almost 750,000 sq. ft., he added. The addition is expected to be completed in October.

The decision to expand the facility adheres to a plan “to ensure over 95 percent of what we sell in America is made in America,” the company said. During the past several years, Mars Wrigley Confectionery has invested $1 billion across the United States. The Waco addition reflects that commitment, Braswell said in the Waco Herald-Tribune story.

“The brands produced in Waco have seen fantastic growth,” added Anthony Guerrieri, Mars’ director of corporate affairs, Americas region. “This new investment will help us to bring new varieties of our iconic brands already produced in Waco, while also ensure we continue to modernize our existing production and give even faster service to retailers across the country.”

Mars in Waco enjoys an excellent reputation in the company system, and that the decision to expand local operations “is a vote of confidence in us, the community and our group of associates,” Braswell told the Waco Herald-Tribune.

With more than 30 years experience in B-to-B reporting, writing and editing — the bulk of which was dedicated to covering the bakery, confectionery and snack industries — Pacyniak has chronicled changes within the food industry since the early 1980s. A Boston University journalism degree graduate, he worked for a variety of publications before joining BNP Media in 1994 as editor of Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery magazine. In 2001, he took over as editor-in-chief of Candy Industry until 2018.