Posters hanging throughout the plant remind employees that what they do here has impact far beyond Burr Ridge. As they enter the plant, production workers pass by photos of the sales team and their key accounts. This serves to reinforce the notion that manufacturing and sales must work together as a team. At the end of the day, there is a customer to be served. Other posters show the popularity and sales strength (based on SymphonyIRI sales figures) of the Mars ice cream brands. It is hard work for any processor to produce to high standards. And it is difficult to do it day after day. Mars Chocolate North America does it. And the processor has fun doing it. 

At a glance

Year plant built/opened: Built in 1974 as a truck parts manufacturing facility. Mars bought it and converted it to a dairy facility in 1986.

Size of the plant: 282,000 square feet on 26 acres

Number of employees: Approximately 130 in manufacturing and 180 in the total ice cream business

Products made: Bars, cones, sandwiches and stick novelties. The bar brands are: Snickers, Twix, Milky Way and Dove. Cones are Snickers and M&M’s. Ice cream cookie sandwiches are M&M’s and Snickers Brownie. Stick novelties are Dove Ice Cream Bars. Pints (co-packed off site) are Milky Way, Snickers, Twix, Twix Peanut Butter, Snickers Rocky Road, Dove and M&M’s.

Number of shifts: Three to four, depending on demand

Storage silos: 10

Pasteurization: High-temperature/short time and batch pasteurizers

Number of filling lines/types: Four ice cream novelty lines producing stick, cone, sandwich, and bar formats