The company says its Hackettstown manufacturing and research operations will remain, while U.S. snacking leadership is consolidated in Chicago.
NEWARK, NJ – Mars Snacking plans to close its U.S. headquarters in Newark by the end of 2027, reversing a headquarters move announced less than a decade ago and placing hundreds of New Jersey positions in transition.
A July filing in New Jersey’s Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification archive lists 307 affected positions at Mars Wrigley Confectionery US LLC in Newark, with an effective date of Oct. 16, 2026.
The October employment action and the eventual office closing are separate dates. The WARN filing does not indicate that the entire Newark operation will cease in October.
Mars told Food Dive that it plans to consolidate U.S. snacking operations in Chicago as part of a broader business strategy. The company said the change is not expected to disrupt products or operations.
The Newark office opened as part of a plan announced in 2017 to base Mars Wrigley’s U.S. headquarters in Newark and Hackettstown. At the time, Mars projected approximately 500 employees in Newark and 1,000 in Hackettstown by July 2020.
The company’s northern New Jersey manufacturing and research footprint is expected to remain. Mars has operated in Hackettstown since 1958 and announced an investment of more than $70 million there in 2024 for a research and development studio and manufacturing improvements.
That distinction matters for Warren and Morris county commuters. The announced closure concerns the Newark headquarters and does not amount to a shutdown of Mars’ Hackettstown factory or research facilities.
The WARN notice does not identify the affected occupations or explain how many employees may receive relocation offers, severance or placement elsewhere within the company. Those questions remain important because a WARN filing counts affected employment but does not, by itself, describe each worker’s final outcome.
Mars is a privately held company whose brands include M&M’s, Snickers, Skittles and Extra. Its Newark connection predates the current headquarters: M&M’s production began in the city during World War II before the company later expanded to Hackettstown.
The closure will remove a substantial corporate office from Newark while preserving, according to currently available information, Mars’ manufacturing and product-development presence elsewhere in northern New Jersey.