Mars operates 38 factories across the United States, plus laboratories, veterinary businesses and offices. Nearly every one sits in a community with a local newspaper, a local animal shelter and a local pet food store — which is the whole qualifying test. These are the markets, and the papers.
Two papers already carry the page — the pulsing halo, west of Washington. Every other pin is a town where the same three things line up: a Mars site, a community newspaper, and a local shelter. Find your paper, tap its pin, then read the partner kit →
Virginia, Mars global HQ in McLean, and Mars Petcare’s US HQ in Franklin, Tennessee. The warmest markets in the country for this page — two of them are Mars’s own hometowns.
The Middleburg Page — the pilot. Jacquie Mars lives locally.
Second outlet for the pilot page — DC audience.
Mars, Incorporated global HQ since 1984. The single most valuable market in the list.
Mars HQ is in this paper's coverage area. Highest symbolic value — 'Mars is closer than you think' printed in Mars' own hometown paper.
Same market — sister editions cover Vienna, Oakton, Great Falls.
Same publisher as McLean Connection — one conversation covers several editions.
Alternative NoVa outlet covering Arlington and Fairfax County.
Immediately adjacent to Middleburg — natural first expansion, same Hunt Country network.
One of Virginia's oldest papers. Middleburg sits in Loudoun County.
Second Loudoun outlet — digital-first, strong local following.
Western Loudoun weekly, small and independent.
Very small — good proof that the model works at the smallest scale.
North American Petcare headquarters. Pet-friendly campus with dog park and doggie daycare.
STRATEGIC: Mars Petcare's own US HQ town. If any market should say yes, it's this one — and Ben Anders and Lindsay Kordik likely work here.
$110M R&D campus incl. Pet Feeding Center housing up to 180 dogs and 120 cats. Global centre of excellence for Pedigree, Whiskas, Royal Canin, Iams.
Same paper as Franklin. This site is also the best source of 'how Mars makes pet food' story material anywhere in the country.
Small towns where a Mars plant is a major employer and a community paper still publishes. These most closely resemble the Middleburg situation: small paper, big local Mars presence, a decision-maker you can reach in one phone call.
Dry pet food, ~200,000 tons/yr. Opened 1984 as an Iams plant. Iams, Pedigree.
BEST-FIT PROFILE: small town, independent weekly, major local employer. Closest analogue to the Middleburg situation.
Royal Canin. $185M expansion doubled the plant; +149 full-time jobs.
Small independent weekly, recent big Mars investment in town — strong local news hook.
Largest Royal Canin dry pet food factory in the world. $450M, opened 2025, 270 new jobs.
Newest and biggest Mars pet food plant on earth, in a Preble County town of ~1,800. Enormous story-to-town ratio.
'DogStar Kitchen' — 371,000 sq ft on 85 acres. Orijen and Acana kibble, freeze-dried, treats.
Logan County weekly. Champion joined Mars in Feb 2023.
Mars Petcare plant at 411 Martin Ave. Product mix not publicly disclosed.
Lowest-profile Mars site found — almost no press coverage, which also means an untold story.
Largest dry food + treats producer in the North American network. Pedigree, Dentastix, Iams, Cesar. 40+ years in town.
Covers Mattoon and Charleston, Coles County. Long Mars history in the community — 40th anniversary was covered by Mars itself.
Royal Canin. Came to Mars in the 2014 P&G / Iams transaction.
Dodge County. Pairs naturally with Aurora NE — one state, two Mars plants, one press association.
109,000 sq ft at 3401 Eberhard Rd, operating since 1987. Pedigree, Iams, Cesar, Sheba, Whiskas, Nutro, Greenies, Eukanuba.
Independent family-owned daily — decision-maker is reachable, no corporate ad-policy gatekeeping.
Royal Canin and Eukanuba, cat and dog. $200M expansion doubled capacity, +90 jobs.
Third Tennessee Mars site — TN alone supports a state-level cluster pitch to the Tennessee Press Association.
Mars Wrigley chocolate — Dove bulk chocolate, M&M's, Snickers, Twix.
Genuine small-town weekly in Lancaster County.
Skittles, Life Savers, Doublemint, Juicy Fruit. $50M / 145k sq ft Skittles line added 2016.
Published continuously since 1864. Shaw Media owns several nearby weeklies — one yes could open a cluster.
Juicy Fruit, Extra, 5 Gum, Excel, Orbit.
Hall County. Large Mars workforce relative to town size.
Sole global producer of COMBOS.
Site downsized in 2023 when peanut roasting moved to Waco — check current sentiment before pitching.
LARGEST MARS FOOD FACTORY IN THE WORLD. Ben's Original rice, Seeds of Change. 250k+ sq ft on 80 acres, 100k tonnes rice/yr, since 1978.
Not a pet food site, but a flagship Mars community. Good candidate if the series ever widens past Petcare.
Exclusive global home of Peanut Butter M&M'S. Also Milk Chocolate & Peanut M&M'S, Twix. $142M expansion, 79 jobs.
Bradley County.
Nature's Bakery bars — the brand's original home.
$15.5M veterinary diagnostics R&D hub (former Heska site). In-house diagnostics, Allercept allergy business.
Veterinary science angle — different story material from the food plants, good for variety in the series.
Nutro dry pet food, 30-acre site. NOTE: current operating status unconfirmed — verify before pitching.
VERIFY THE PLANT IS STILL RUNNING before any outreach.
Headquarters of Banfield — 1,000+ veterinary clinics, mostly inside PetSmart. Mars-owned since 2007.
Independent family-owned daily. Banfield gives a strong veterinary-expertise story angle.
Wet / tray-format pet food. Sheba, Cesar, Iams, Nutro, Pedigree, Whiskas, Acana, Orijen. One of the largest Mars Petcare US sites.
Big workforce. Gannett ownership means ad decisions may sit outside the newsroom.
Snickers, Milky Way, 3 Musketeers. Opened 2014; $175M / 100+ job expansion 2022.
Snickers, Starburst, Skittles. Peanut roasting consolidated here from Albany GA in 2023. Since 1976.
Pairs with Temple TX — two Mars sites ~35 miles apart, one Texas Press Association pitch.
Greenies, Greenies Pill Pockets, dog supplements, Royal Canin Pill Assist. $82M expansion, +95 jobs.
Metro market — find a neighbourhood or suburban weekly rather than the Kansas City Star.
Royal Canin USA headquarters, 4 City Place Drive.
Royal Canin's US corporate home — worth a dedicated look for a suburban weekly.
Cities where no true community paper serves the Mars site. Weaker fit for the model — pitch only after finding a neighbourhood or suburban weekly.
Sole global maker of certain Life Savers and Altoids varieties. 35,000+ tonnes of mints a year. Since 1973.
Metro daily — the community-paper pitch fits poorly. Consider a suburban weekly instead.
Ethel M Chocolates — sole global production site, with a public factory tour and cactus garden.
The visitor centre is an unusually good story asset if a local weekly can be found.
Nature's Bakery — $240M, 339,000 sq ft, ~1 billion bars/yr. Opened July 2025.
Metro market.
Makes all Mars ice cream sold in the US — Snickers, Dove, Twix, M&M's, Milky Way, KIND frozen.
Chicago suburb — several strong independent weeklies in the area, worth a look.
M&M'S made on High St. since 1958. Also Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, Skittles, Starburst, Extra, Altoids. $70M+ investment from 2023.
Print weekly coverage has thinned — TAPinto is digital-only, so the printed-page model needs adapting here. Huge Mars heritage though: M&M's have been made in this town for 68 years.
BluePearl Specialty & Emergency Pet Hospital headquarters; network spans 29 states.
Metro market, but emergency-vet stories are strong rescue-adjacent material.
Goose Island campus: global HQ, $42M R&D hub (300 associates), Mars Food North America HQ. New Fulton Market office, 602 new jobs.
Major Mars centre but a hard community-paper market. Note the corporate contacts likely sit here.