Mars knows chocolate sales are nothing to snicker at. Mars, Incorporated makes such worldwide favorites as M&M's, Snickers, and the Mars bar. Its other confections include 3 Musketeers, Dove, Milky Way, Skittles, Twix, and Starburst candy; Combos and Kudos snacks; Uncle Ben's rice; and pet food under the names Pedigree, Sheba, and Whiskas. It also owns the world's largest chewing gum maker, the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. The Mars family (including siblings and retired company CEO Forrest Mars Jr., chairman John Franklyn Mars, and VP Jacqueline Badger Mars) owns the highly secretive firm, making the family one of the richest in the US.

Reichel Foods was founded by president, Craig Reichel, in 1997. Reichel Foods company produces value-added branded and private-label ready-to-eat convenience foods such as sliced apples and caramel dip all packaged together for customer convenience. Just open and eat. Its flagship Dippin' Stix products come in single-serve portions. Several choices of "Stix" are offered, including apples, carrots, pickles, pita chips and come with either caramel, ranch-dressing, yogurt, peanut-butter, or hummus dips. Reichel Foods company also offers party-tray and bulk-pack variations of Dippin' Stix. All are available at food retailers throughout the US.

As Mexico's leading chicken and chicken egg producer, Industrias Bachoco doesn't care if the chicken or the egg came first. The company operates poultry production and distribution facilities throughout Mexico and accounted for more than 30% of Mexico's total chicken production in 2008. Bachoco breeds, processes, and markets chicken (accounting for about 77% of the company's sales that same year). It produces and distributes eggs, swine, and animal feed. Although it brings in less than 1% of the company's sales, Bachoco also offers turkey and selected value-added beef products. (It raises no turkey or cattle, it only processes them.) The Robinson Bours family owns an 83% interest in the company.

Brioche Pasquier is France's leading pastry and bread maker. Its fresh and frozen pastries are available to the masses through supermarkets in Europe. Along with its specialty breads (or Viennese breads) and breakfast pastries, Brioche makes tarts, biscotti, crackers, croutons, and desserts like petit fours and nougat glace. Acquisitions have provided leavening for Brioche Pasquier; Brioche Pasquier company expanded to Spain, where it acquired baking company Productos Recondo. Brioche Pasquier also has subsidiaries in Belgium, Germany, and the UK.

Kemps LLC, manufactures and markets milk, ice cream and related dairy products under a variety of strong brands including Kemps, Hood, Hagan, Green's and Arrowhead. The company also manufactures a wide range of private label dairy products for major retail and food service customers. The company, with headquarters located in St. Paul, Minnesota, has over 1,450 employees serving customers in markets throughout the upper Midwest, New England, Mid Atlantic and Gulf States region. Kemps operates four fluid processing facilities located in Duluth, Rochester and Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Cedarburg, Wisconsin: a cultured plant in Farmington, Minnesota; and ice cream facilities in Rochester, Minnesota and Suffield, Connecticut. The company also owns Beckers Dairy, a food service distributorship located in downtown Chicago.Kemps is well known in the industry for introducing innovative new products and has received frequent recognition for a number of successful first to market product launches including Kemps Frozen Yogurt, Kemps Yo-J, and Kemps Squeezable Sour Cream.

Pacific Choice Brands has been owned by its officers since 1980. Pacific Choice Brands knows how to round out a meal. At its certified kosher and organic facilities, Pacific Choice Brands company offers contract packaging for a variety of food products, including condiments such as maraschino cherries, garlic, capers, sun-dried tomatoes, grape leaves, peppers, olives, salsa, salad dressings, and pasta and barbecue sauces. Pacific Choice Brands company also provides other food processors with custom support services such as new product development, reformulation or existing products, technical and nutritional assistance, plant production trials, raw material sourcing, product labeling and wrapping, and warehousing and shipping.

Sunfresh Foods was founded in 1986 by president Rick Cosgrave, vice president Jill Morganpage, and Reed Hadley. Sunfresh Foods spreads jam to freezers throughout the US. Sunfresh Foods company makes its freezer jams and fruit sauces under the name Freezerves. Its customers include restaurants, supermarkets, and large foodservice distributors such as SYSCO, U.S. Foodservice, and Rinehart Foodservice. Its retail customers include such as Quality Food Centers, Larry's Market , Thriftway, and Albertsons; items can also be ordered via the company's Web site.

S. J. McCullagh imports, roasts, and wholesales coffee and related products in the US and Canada. It sells both Arabica and Robusta coffee at different grinds, grades, and roasts. The company also markets tea, cocoa, and sugar. S. J. McCullagh traces its roots to the 19th century when Samuel McCullagh and his brother founded the New York Tea Company.

Despite what your toddler says at bedtime, good things do come out of the dark. Franklin Organic Mushrooms, which does business as Franklin Farms, has sprouted into one of the top growers and harvester of certified organic mushrooms in the US. The company's mushroom crop, grown completely without pesticides, includes agaricus (white "button" mushrooms), portabella, shiitake, crimini, oyster, enoki, beech, and maitake. It also produces meat-alternative vegetarian products made from soy and mushrooms, including Veggiburgers, Veggiballs, Veggidogs, and Chick'n Nuggets. The company was founded in 1983.

It's always an adventure at The Inventure Group. The company -- founded by Don and Jay Poore in 1986 and formerly known as Poore Brothers -- makes snack chips and dips under Bob's Texas Style, Poore Brothers, Boulder Canyon Natural Foods, and Tato Skins brands. The company also makes savory snacks branded with the T.G.I. Friday's and BURGER KING names, as well as manufacturing store brands for several food chains in the southwestern US. The firm distributes its own and other companies' snack food products. Costco accounted for about 24% of the company's 2008 sales.

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