Mars Wrigley announced Thursday it would build a new research and development facility on Goose Island, the site of the company’s global headquarters.
The company, which makes candies including M&Ms, Skittles, Snickers and Twix, said the development will make Chicago its largest innovation hub in the world.
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Construction on the research hub is scheduled to begin this summer and be completed by summer 2023. It is expected to cost about $40 million, according to spokesperson Jonathan Guerin.
The facility will be built next to the company’s existing global innovation center on Goose Island, which opened in 2005 and where Mars already employs more than 450 people. About 950 people work on the company’s Goose Island campus in total. The company said the new facility will bring about 30 jobs to Chicago.
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Guerin said in an email the new research hub would “expand to inspire the next generation of new products to support the company’s iconic global snacks and treats brands.” Research and development at the existing facility is focused on fruity, gum and mints products, Guerin said.
“Mars has made Chicago home to innovation for nearly 100 years, producing some of the world’s most beloved and iconic snacks and treats,” Chris Rowe, global vice president of research and development, said in a statement. “Creating new jobs and a world-class, multimillion-dollar research and development hub demonstrates our ongoing commitment to the Chicagoland area and accelerates our future for innovation.”
Mars acquired Chicago-based Wrigley in 2008. The company’s U.S. headquarters moved to New Jersey in 2017, though its global headquarters is on Goose Island.
In January, Mars Wrigley announced it was closing a historic chocolate plant in Galewood on the city’s West Side. The plant, which as of January employed about 280 people, will be phased out over the next two years, the company said at the time.
Some of the company’s other Illinois manufacturing locations include an ice cream factory in Burr Ridge, a candy factory in Yorkville and a pet nutrition manufacturing site in Mattoon. Mars employs just under 4,000 people in Illinois.
