Consumer Packaged Goods Practice

‘Everyone snacks’: How

Mars Wrigley is pursuing
growth in emerging markets
Blas Maquivar, president of global emerging markets at Mars Wrigley, discusses
consumers’ evolving snacking behaviors, the company’s digital and purpose-driven
ambitions, and his new travel schedule amid the pandemic.

October 2021
 His goal is to change how half the world snacks.
As president of global emerging markets for Mars
Wrigley, Blas Maquivar is constantly thinking of
ways to “expand the penetration and reach” of
chocolate, gum, mints, and fruity confections
across more than 130 countries. In this episode of
the McKinsey on Consumer and Retail podcast,
Maquivar talks about Mars Wrigley’s new digital
initiatives, its competitive advantages in the
battle for talent, and its purpose-driven strategies
for growing the treats and snacking category
in emerging markets. He also reveals what
the COVID-19 pandemic has taught him about
leadership. The following is an edited transcript of
his conversation with McKinsey’s Monica Toriello.
Monica Toriello: We are recording this episode in
October, which, in some parts of the world, means
Halloween is just around the corner. To many
people, Halloween is synonymous with candy—lots
of candy. Our guest on today’s episode lives in the
world of candy, gum, and fruity confections.
Blas Maquivar is president of global emerging
markets at Mars Wrigley, the maker of iconic
global brands, including M&Ms, Snickers, Twix,
Skittles, Starburst, Lifesavers, and Doublemint.
Blas oversees a $2.5 billion business that employs
6,500 people and encompasses more than
130 countries across Asia, Australia, Latin America,
the Middle East, and Africa. Those regions are
home to about 65 percent of the world’s population.
Blas first joined Mars 11 years ago as general
manager of Mars Chocolate in Mexico. He went
on to lead the entire Latin American region, then
the UK; then he became president of the global
chocolate business before taking on his current role,
starting in January 2019. Prior to joining Mars, he
worked at PepsiCo, Microsoft, and P&G. Welcome to
the podcast, Blas.
Blas Maquivar: Thank you, Monica. I’m super happy
to chat with you about something that consumers
love: our candy. Many countries around the world
are celebrating Halloween. It’s not only in North
2 ‘Everyone snacks’: How Mars Wrigley is pursuing growth in emerging markets
America; some countries in Europe and Asia have
adopted that ritual as well. It’s a great occasion
for Mars Wrigley to be able to place a smile on
consumers’ faces.
Monica Toriello: Before we dive in, please clear this
up for us: you lead global emerging markets, but you
live in the United Kingdom. What’s the story there?
Blas Maquivar: It’s a combination of a business
reason and a personal reason. From the business
point of view, it’s because I lead many time zones.
Living in London allows me to have a conversation
with Asia in my morning, which is Asia’s evening;
then with the Middle East or Africa during my
afternoon; and then, in my evenings, with my Latin
American leaders.
On the personal side, I lived in London when I
led our United Kingdom business from 2015 to
2017. I am Mexican, and my partner is Puerto
Rican, but we really enjoyed our time in London.
We left for Chicago when I took on a global role,
but when I was asked to lead emerging markets,
my family and I wanted to move back to London.
Before COVID-19, I traveled the world; probably
70 percent of my time was spent traveling. That has
changed, as you can imagine.
Consumers’ snacking behaviors
Monica Toriello: Later on, we’ll talk more about
your post-COVID-19 travel schedule. But first,
let’s talk about people’s snacking behaviors. I’ve
heard you say that in the middle of the pandemic,
chewing-gum sales went down because people
don’t really chew gum at home; they mostly chew
gum outside the home. But candy and chocolate
sales went up because people like to snack when
they’re sitting on the couch watching a movie or
playing board games with their family, so they’re
buying packs of candy and bags of chocolate.
What are the trends and patterns that you’re seeing
now, Blas? How did consumer snacking behavior
change between, say, mid-2020 and today?
Blas Maquivar: I think what we’re seeing now Mexico: we have a chocolate gifting brand called
aren’t new trends, but rather trends that existed Turin, and we opened a Turin digital store.
before the pandemic and are accelerating. One
big trend is the digital default, as we call it: digital I can give you many examples where our brands
shopping has quintupled over the past 18 months. tripled down on the digital world. The context of all
Another big consumer trend is what we call “back of this is that digital, or e-commerce, represents low
to nature and back to home.” We discovered new to mid-single digits of our total business. Our intent
activities and rituals inside our homes during is to have it become 20 percent of our business.
COVID-19 lockdowns: cooking, playing board
games, watching more movies with family, inviting As for the health and wellness trend, one way we’ve
a few friends over to enjoy being at home. A third been agile is through our intense global expansion
trend is health and wellness: consumers are more of the KIND brand, which is very well known in
aware of what they are eating and more aware of North America. We now sell KIND in the UK, Saudi
their mental health. Arabia, Australia, et cetera. Bringing the KIND
brand across the world to capture that health and
The challenge is not identifying these trends—we wellness trend that we’re seeing in snacking is very
already know them, and the majority of the industry high on our agenda.
knows them. The real challenge is what you do
about it: having the speed and agility to be one step
ahead of the competition and to delight consumers Winning in the digital world
as they are embracing these trends.
Monica Toriello: When you say “double down”
or “triple down” on digital capabilities, I imagine
Monica Toriello: What are some examples of how
that partly means hiring new talent. How has
Mars Wrigley has been agile and innovative during
Mars Wrigley attracted digital talent when you’re
this global pandemic?
competing against companies in almost every
industry for that talent?
Blas Maquivar: One example is that we accelerated
the building of digital capabilities across our
Blas Maquivar: I believe the most important
markets; we’re really investing in talented
challenge that we need to tackle is talent and
associates. We also transformed—and are
capabilities. If we get that right, the rest will come.
continuing to transform—our portfolio to satisfy
And you’re right: it’s a fight for digital talent. I
the consumer from that digital angle, because the
believe our most important advantage is that we
portfolio that will win in a Carrefour or a Walmart or
are one of the few big family-owned companies
a convenience store is not necessarily the portfolio
in the world. That brings something very special
that will win in digital.
to the Mars culture, in the sense of freedom,
responsibility, mutuality, and the way we treat our
In India, we launched an online Snickers store
associates. Also, the Mars Inc. purpose of doing
in partnership with Swiggy, which is one of the
what is right today so that we can have a bright
crucial digital players in India. Also, knowing that
tomorrow ties into Mars Wrigley’s purpose of
consumers were celebrating a lot at home, we
“creating better moments to make the world smile,”
doubled down on our My M&Ms digital store, where
and the combination of these two has allowed us to
you can send your photograph or a loved one’s
attract the right talent.
photograph and get it printed on M&Ms. If you’re
having a wedding or a party, you can personalize
Is it easy? No. But I can tell you that in the
M&Ms with any logo or words or pictures you
majority of instances, we are able to attract the
want printed on the candy. Another example from
talent that we need because of these two big

‘Everyone snacks’: How Mars Wrigley is pursuing growth in emerging markets 3

 buckets: being family owned and being a purpose-
driven company.
Monica Toriello: We’ll talk more about purpose
a little later. For now, a tactical question: What is
working in e-commerce? You talked about Snickers
and My M&Ms and Turin. What are some of the
lessons you’ve learned in your experiments with
online channels?
Blas Maquivar: E-commerce or digital has sub-
elements and different business models. You
have the Walmarts or the Carrefours online, and
pure plays like Amazon. But then you also have
food-delivery players like Deliveroo in the UK, dark
kitchens,1 and transportation players like Uber. All of
these are different, and the consumer uses them for
different jobs, different things. In food delivery, for
example, the role of our brands is more of a snack at
the end of the meal or a piece of gum to freshen your
breath after eating Indian food.
So we need a bespoke solution for each of these
business models. Digital is probably our most
important growth opportunity, but there’s no one-
size-fits-all solution. We can’t use the same portfolio,
the same brand with the same price, the same
format, and the same packaging to win across all of
these elements.
Reaching the emerging-market
consumer
Monica Toriello: Speaking of bespoke solutions, I
imagine that the treats and snacks market in the
UK is pretty different from the market in, say, Asia.
How would you characterize the treats and snacks
industry in emerging markets? And have you found
any big “unlocks”—any particularly successful
strategies to get consumers in emerging markets to
buy more Mars Wrigley products?
1
Also known as ghost kitchens or virtual kitchens, these are commercial kitchens that make food only for delivery. Dark kitchens have no dine-in
area for customers.
4 ‘Everyone snacks’: How Mars Wrigley is pursuing growth in emerging markets
Blas Maquivar: Everyone snacks. A Mexican, an
Egyptian, an American—everyone snacks. What
changes is what they snack on and where they buy it.
In the emerging-market world, the majority of
snacking is baked goods—cookies and biscuits—
followed by salty snacks, like corn chips and
potato chips. After that, but quite far down the
list, is chocolate, because chocolate is more
expensive than a cookie. The ingredients to make
chocolate—cacao, sugar, milk—are significantly
more expensive than the wheat to make a cookie.
In the developed world, it’s the other way around.
Chocolate and biscuits and cookies basically have
the same penetration.
So our job in emerging markets is to figure out how
to grow not just our market share but the size of
the categories in which we compete—for example,
chocolate. The emerging-market consumer, on
average, eats 500 grams of chocolate per year. In
the developed world, consumers eat five kilograms
of chocolate per year—that’s ten times more. So our
job is to figure out what we need to do to increase
those 500 grams to one kilogram, one and a half,
two. It will take years, generations, to do that. But
we have to do it because the name of the game is
penetration and reach. How do we increase the
penetration and reach of chocolate?
We believe there are certain penetration barriers
that we need to remove. It starts with mental
availability. How do we ensure that the emerging-
market consumer is aware of our brands? We need
to have best-in-class advertising, supported with
very robust media investment: TV, radio, et cetera.
That unlocks the mental availability.
The second aspect is physical availability. Once
Indians or Mexicans or Egyptians are aware of the
brand called Snickers or M&Ms, when they go to
their favorite shop, they need to find that brand.
We need to have the right pricing, packaging, and
‘Digital, or e-commerce, represents
low to mid-single digits of our total
business. Our intent is to have it become
20 percent of our business.’
display, anchored in the right route to market, to be
able to reach the millions of mom-and-pop stores in
emerging markets, as well as the convenience-store
channel, other brick-and-mortar stores, and now
the digital world. Today, chocolate doesn’t really
have physical and digital availability in emerging
markets. If you go to ten stores in emerging markets,
you will find chocolate in less than five, but you will
find cookies and biscuits in all ten. So, through the
right pricing, packaging, display, and route to market,
we will break the barrier of physical availability.
Finally, we need to make sure that our products do
the right job for the right occasion. People snack for
different reasons. We snack because we are a little
bit hungry and it’s still two hours before lunch. Or
you are watching a movie with your family and you
want to share some chocolates. These occasions
cannot be satisfied by the same format. It’s very
difficult, for example, to cut a Snickers bar into ten
pieces and give one piece to each of your family
members; your hands will get sticky. M&Ms play a
sharing role much better than Snickers. So having
the right formats to satisfy the right jobs is the final
unlocker of penetration.
Those three things—mental availability, physical
availability, and having the right formats—will
“sustainability”; they’re on almost every page of the
translate into 500 grams of chocolate becoming
700 grams, one kilogram, two kilograms, and so
“Those are just buzzwords that companies throw
on until we, hopefully, will reach the developed-
market per capita number. But, again, that will
“The world we want tomorrow starts with how we
take generations.
‘Everyone snacks’: How Mars Wrigley is pursuing growth in emerging markets
Monica Toriello: I imagine another unlock is
localizing tastes and flavors to align with the
preferences of consumers in a market, right? Do you
have a favorite flavor or product that’s available only
in emerging markets?
Blas Maquivar: I’m Mexican, so I love spicy food.
It’s very common for Mexicans to add spiciness
to fruit, like a spicy mango or spicy pineapple.
In Mexico, we have brands called Lucas and
Skwinkles. Imagine Skittles, but super spicy, with
tamarind spices and chili flavors. That’s one of my
favorites. Also, in Mexico we have a brand called
Turin that I mentioned earlier. It’s chocolate, but
we add a little bit of liquor—we have partnerships
with companies like Diageo, so we add Baileys
or whisky into the chocolate—and it’s an adult
proposition. I can name lots of other examples.
Many countries have what we call local jewels:
brands that are different and tailor-made to the
local consumer.
Translating purpose into action
Monica Toriello: I was looking at Mars’s corporate
website and I was struck by the prominence
and pervasiveness of the words “purpose” and
site. Some of our listeners are probably thinking,
around all the time.” How does Mars’s purpose—
5
 do business today”—manifest itself in your life and
in the day-to-day work of Mars’s employees?
Blas Maquivar: Mars Wrigley’s purpose, which
stems directly from Mars Inc.’s purpose, is
“creating better moments to make the world
smile.” We believe our purpose is to put a smile
on everyone who comes in contact with us. It
starts with our associates and the way we develop,
compensate, and engage them. In return, our
associates will decide to stay with us, and they
will be motivated to put a smile on the faces of the
people in our value chain.
How do we treat our cocoa farmers in Côte d’Ivoire,
for example? We help them succeed. We provide
knowledge, capital, financing. We ensure that we
buy cocoa only from farms that do not hire children.
In return, the cocoa farmer will decide to continue
to farm cocoa so that we have enough cocoa to
produce our chocolates.
For the consumer, we provide the best products
possible, with high quality. We have a marketing
code that we do not advertise to children. On our
labeling, we are very clear about our ingredients. So
we place a smile on the consumer, and in return the
consumer decides to buy our products.
As for our customers, we help them grow the
chocolate, gum, or fruity confections category in
their businesses by providing know-how. We help
them profit and grow, and we put a smile on them.
And if we both prosper, we have a better world.
That’s the way we see it. And we mean it—these are
not words that I just invented. This is my daily life.
Every decision I make is guided by “am I placing a
smile on someone?” That’s how we try to bring our
corporate purpose to life.
Monica Toriello: What’s your response to someone
who says, “But, Blas, snack companies contribute
to health conditions like obesity and diabetes. How
does that square with Mars Wrigley’s purpose?”
6 ‘Everyone snacks’: How Mars Wrigley is pursuing growth in emerging markets
Blas Maquivar: I am super proud of our products,
and I truly believe there is space in everyone’s
life for chocolate and gum, so long as they’re
consuming it responsibly. I completely agree with
you that there is obesity, diabetes, high blood
pressure, you name it—and Mars Wrigley wants to
be part of the solution.
What are we doing about it? First, we offer options.
In our chocolate brands, we offer products that
are below 250 or 200 calories. In our labeling, we
are very transparent about our ingredients, the
number of calories, the amount of sugar. We do
not advertise to children; we do not use characters
to convince children to buy things; we do not sell
directly to middle schools and below. We offer
options like KIND and Nature’s Bakery. So the
consumer has options.
We’re also working with others across the industry.
When I was leading the UK, I was part of a food
manufacturing industry group that worked hand in
hand with the government on a holistic approach
to the obesity epidemic, for example, because that
requires education, the right policies, et cetera. In
summary, I’m very proud of what we do. We are not
turning a blind eye to the situation. We want to be
part of the solution.
A valuable leadership lesson
Monica Toriello: Let’s end with a future-of-work
question. Earlier, you mentioned your prepandemic
travel schedule. Mars has said that it will cut business
travel by at least half compared with 2019 levels.
How do you see your travel schedule changing?
What does the future of work look like for you?
Blas Maquivar: Before COVID-19, I was traveling
about 75 percent of the time. If you ask my wife
about this, she will probably answer you in a
different tone. Anyway, I was traveling that much
because my style of leadership is connecting,
inspiring, touching the hearts and minds of people,
and the way I tried to do that was by being there—
visible leadership.
But I can tell you now that I was wrong. The
COVID-19 pandemic has brought me something
positive, which is to realize that even if I’m not
doing heavy traveling, I don’t need to lose my
essence as a leader who wants to be present and
wants to inspire.
I do, of course, still see myself traveling—because
there is still a need for physical connection—but
definitely not at the levels that I used to. I think
I’ll be traveling around 40 percent of my time
instead of 75 percent. Many things that I used to
do by traveling, I now know how to do through the
digital world: through videoconferences, virtual
“breakfasts with Blas,” or chats with small groups
of associates. I’ve learned that connection and
inspiration can be achieved in the virtual world. So
without having all the answers—because no one
knows for sure, really—I do see a world with less
travel and with much more flexibility, but still with a
need for physical connection.
Monica Toriello: Well, I’m happy for your family;
they get to spend a lot more time with you now.
Thank you, Blas, for your insights and your candor.
This was a fun conversation. To our listeners,
thanks for tuning in. I wish you all a happy and safe
and sweet Halloween!

Comments and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not represent or reflect the opinions, policies, or
positions of McKinsey & Company or have its endorsement.

Blas Maquivar, who is based in London, is president of global emerging markets at Mars Wrigley. Monica Toriello is an
executive editor in McKinsey’s New York office.

Designed by McKinsey Global Publishing

Copyright © 2021 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved.

‘Everyone snacks’: How Mars Wrigley is pursuing growth in emerging markets 7