Pop-Tarts are toaster pastries launched in 1964, developed after a rival announced a similar product before it was ready to sell, prompting Kellogg to rush its own to market. The frosted versions came two years later, and they remain among the most-sold items in the American breakfast aisle.
Mars is a family-owned company headquartered in McLean, Virginia, United States, founded in 1911. Brandtree records 42 brands under its control.
Mars is one of the largest privately held companies in the world, owned by the Mars family since Frank Mars began making sweets in Tacoma in 1911. It publishes no financial statements. Its four segments are snacking, pet nutrition, food and Mars Wrigley, and it agreed to acquire Kellanova in 2024.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,550 brands that began in the United States.
479 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Pop-Tarts is not one of them.
Mars agreed in August 2024 to buy Kellanova for $83.50 a share in cash, a total enterprise value of $35.9 billion including assumed net leverage, and completed the purchase on 11 December 2025 after the last regulatory approvals arrived three days earlier. Kellanova became a wholly owned subsidiary of Mars and its shares left the New York Stock Exchange. The brands did not change hands individually: Pringles, Cheez-It, Pop-Tarts, RXBAR and the international Kellogg cereals stay with Kellanova, which is now a private family-owned company's snacking arm rather than a listed business.
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