The story of Mars Food began in Slough, where Mars established Dornay Foods in 1962. The original product was a vacuum-dried potato stick called CHIPPLES.
One year later production moved to a purpose-built factory in King’s Lynn to take advantage of the abundant local product. The factory there had to be extended almost immediately to manufacture instant mashed potato under the YEOMAN brand. Dornay Foods also produced an instant hot chocolate drink.
During the 70s the brand grew to include canned meats and a new meat plant was opened in King’s Lynn in 1978. In 1982 Mars bought TYNE BRAND from Spillers and manufacture continued to grow.
The first UNCLE BEN'S products arrived from the USA in the mid 80s and a frozen ready meals plant was commissioned, initially for rice. In 1986 a pasta plant was added for the first DOLMIO brand products. DOLMIO jar sauces were introduced, followed by fresh and frozen versions.
A year later Dornay Foods was renamed Master Foods. Stir-in pasta sauces were introduced in the mid 1990s and the innovative UNCLE BEN'S and DOLMIO ranges grew. Foodservice sauces were developed in 1993.
New technology constantly brought in new high-quality food formats, which were researched and developed at King’s Lynn. Pouches were developed to replace tins for TYNE BRAND in 1999 and this led to the revolutionary rice pouch.
As recently as 2000 it was still possible to visit the site and be confronted by a mountain of enormous potatoes. But restructuring saw the removal of canning, granule potato production and frozen ready meal lines. They were replaced with state-of-the-art pouch and pot technology, which now underpins the site’s success.