The U.K. arm of Mars Wrigley Confectionery, the parent company behind well-known chocolate brands like Snickers, Bounty, and M&M’s, has a reason to celebrate—its profits doubled in one year.
In earnings filed with Companies House on Friday, Mars U.K. revealed that the company has had a blockbuster year, with profits jumping from £105 million in 2022 to £206.2 million in 2023, marking a nearly 100% increase.
Additionally, the company will pay shareholders a chunky dividend worth £600 million—over five times higher than the payout in 2022.
The British arm of Mars attributed the whopping profits to a variety of factors.
“The performance for the period reflects the investment into products, brands, processes and consumer relationships as part of our ongoing strategy to reflect and adapt to anticipated changes in consumer attitudes and behaviour, as well as increase the focus of key areas of the market place,” it said in its earnings release.
The news comes just after the Virginia-based company Mars Inc. announced it would buy Kellanova, the giant behind popular, packed food items like Pop-Tarts and Pringles.
Kellanova was spun off from Kellogg last year, with net sales worth $13 billion in 2023.
The purchase further solidified Mars’s snacking stronghold, a business that’s boomed recently, especially among younger consumers who opt to break their meals into small portions. In the U.K., the shift to snacking has been driven by healthier lifestyle preferences and a need to indulge in smaller treats—benefiting from a lipstick effect of sorts.
Mars has been boosting its business in the U.K. through high-profile deals. For instance, it announced last year that it would buy Hotel Chocolat, the elite chocolate maker, for £534 million.
The deal would help the British chocolatier expand its business in the U.K. and the globe and give Mars a new snacking brand to bet on in the premium segment.
The likes of Lindt, which exclusively makes chocolates, have had to adapt to rising production costs by increasing consumer prices to fuel its business growth. Mondelez, another of Mars’s competitors that makes Oreo and Cadbury chocolates, has also resorted to price hikes to absorb mounting operational costs while delivering results.
Meanwhile, some of Mars’s chocolates have been victims of shrinkflation due to some of the same factors.
The Mars family has minted billions from its sprawling snack and pet food business. Six of the dynasty’s members are part of the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, with their net worth ranging from $12 billion to $49.2 billion.
Representatives at Mars didn’t return Fortune’s request for comment.
