Have you ever bought a march, snickers or milky way on vacation and looked on the back? There is a good chance that it says that it was made at Mars in Veghel. In fact, the chocolate bar factory is the largest in the world.
Millions of bars roll off the band every day at the Mars factory. “You don’t just come in here”, Aartie Bahadoer and Hans van Houtum say, who give Omroep Brabant a one -off tour of the company.
Hans, dressed in a white suit, helmet and hairnet, has been working at Mars for 25 years. “I first worked for twenty years in the research department, where I was jointly responsible for the development of new products. Then I went to the production department and I trained people in making Nougat and Karamel.”
“That is why I can still use my background as a chef every day,” he says proudly, in the meantime checking the production of the Milky Way. “I was in several kitchens, but this is actually also a kind of cooking. Making caramel and Nougat naturally has many similarities.”
The Nougat is used in the Milky Way, among others. Long bars are cut on the band, after which they are topped with chocolate. “It is really all chocolate here. Trucks of chocolate are processed here daily. That smells delicious, but just grabbing the tire is not allowed. That is not possible because of the hygiene.”
“Although there are stretching with sweets that we can eat as much as we want,” he says. Tasting is even a serious part of his work. “I am also in a special panel. We regularly taste all the bars of a shift or they meet all the requirements. I sometimes tasted 29 bars in one morning. Although I also spit them out again,” he laughs.
“It is actually like Sjakie in the chocolate factory here,” adds Aartie Bahadoer. She has been working at Mars for about ten years and ensures that all machines keep running. “It is quite difficult if you just come to work here to stay away from the candy,” she confesses.
“I complete boxes and loose malfunctions. Everything to prevent the line from stopping,” Aartie says proudly. “I have been in the Bounty department from day one. It has really become my child. I even notice that I hear from the machines if they are running well. I don’t even have to look at it anymore.”
The work in the chocolate company remains special for Aartie. “You don’t just come in here either. That is because of the hygiene, but also because we naturally have secrets in our recipes. And I know that, but I can’t say anything about it.”
“In addition, the super cool is that you even encounter the products we make abroad,” adds Hans. “Wherever you are, you will find them everywhere in stores. I always look at the bars whether they come from here and when they are produced. It may happen that a bar has been made by me. I think that is kicking.”
Mars on the European continent
In 1961, Mars opened a sales office on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam. It was a advanced post from the still to be built factory. Not much later, the company bought a piece of land in Veghel to build the factory.
Hard work was done on the site in 1962 to open the factory as quickly as possible. A year later, the first chocolate bars of the European continent rolled off the assembly line.
