Mars entered a new orbit in the Top 100 Grocery Brands table with a rise of 13 places to 40 last year.
It grew by 12.7% to £132.1m in 2007, a huge improvement on its 1.3% growth in the previous year.
Sales were boosted by the launch of Mars Planets in the bitesize sector, Mars’s biggest launch last year.
It generated some £17m in sales since launch, and Mars has pressed on with sales and marketing initiatives for these and its existing bitesize and pouch lines, with the latter packaging pushing up Mars product sales by 13% since 2005, in a total market which increased by 15.3% in the past year.
“Mars Planets is the biggest single launch in the last three years,” says Andrea Taylor, former Mars trade relations manager.
