Hershey
Confectionery and snacks · United States
Hershey is a US confectionery and snack company that makes chocolate and candy such as Hershey's, Reese's and Kisses plus salty snacks like SkinnyPop and Dot's pretzels, sold mostly in North America.
What makes it different
One wholesaler buys more than a quarter of everything.
27%Net sales to McLaneFY2025
McLane, the main distributor to convenience stores, drug stores and Walmart, takes about 27% of net sales.
How big it is
How big is Hershey?
$11.7BNet salesFY2025
85+Brand namesFY2025
17,550EmployeesFY2025
How it makes money FY2025
Confectionery is four fifths of sales.
- North America Confectionery81%$9.5B
- North America Salty Snacks11%$1.3B
- International8%$942M
How the business works
Buy cocoa. Make candy. Sell via wholesalers.
- 1Cocoa via Swiss trading arm
- 2Chocolate in owned US plants
- 3Wholesale distributors and retailers
Cocoa is its most significant raw material and West Africa grows about 70% of the world's beans, so cocoa prices drive its margins.
Who owns it
- Milton Hershey School Trust (Hershey Trust Company, trustee)79%
- Vanguard Group, Inc.13.1%
- BlackRock, Inc.8.3%
CEO: Kirk Tanner
Who it competes with
Key moments
- 1894Milton Hershey establishes the Hershey Chocolate Company
- 1900Hershey sells its first milk chocolate bar
- 1918Milton Hershey places the company's assets in the Milton Hershey School trust
- 1927Hershey is listed on the NYSE
- 1963Acquires H.B. Reese Candy Company
Sources
Every number on this page comes from Hershey's own reports.
Full profile
The rest of the story is in the app.
What Hershey tracks18 metrics
Brand names
Countries where its products are sold
Principal manufacturing plants
Results, quarter by quarterwith a chart
Revenue
Profit
Margin
Where the money comes from2 regions
United States
Outside the United States
The full timeline15 moments
2023
2024
2025
Hershey vs Marsside by side
Revenue
Profit
People
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