HERSHEY'S CHOCOLATE COMPANY

Hershey's chocolate Company

Hershey's chocolate Company

Introduction

The Hershey Company (Hershey or “the company”) manufactures sells and distributes snack food, sugar and confectionery products in more than 50 countries under some 80 brand names. The principal product groups include confectionery and snack products; gum and mint refreshment products; and food and beverage enhancers such as baking ingredients, peanut butter, toppings and beverages. In addition to its traditional confectionery products, the company also offers a range of products specifically developed to address the nutritional interests of health-conscious consumers. The company operates under a single reportable division with operations spread across five geographic regions that includes the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil and other international locations (such as Japan, Korea, the Philippines, India and China).

Thesis Statement

Hershey Foods Corporation achieved paramount fame by creating mouth-watering chocolate, promoting this chocolate through quality alone, and focusing their entire company on one specific treat: chocolate.

Discussion

Hershey was established in 1876 when Milton S. Hershey opened his own candy shop in Philadelphia. He initially established Lancaster Caramel Company, a caramel business. In 1894, he formed the Hershey Chocolate Company as a subsidiary of his Lancaster caramel business. In addition to chocolate coatings, Hershey made breakfast cocoa, sweet chocolate and baking chocolate. Hershey sold the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1900 but retained the chocolate manufacturing equipment and the rights to manufacture chocolate. The company entered the mass production of milk chocolate products in 1905. (Eboch, pp 84-228)

In order to expand its product line, the company began producing a flat-bottomed, conical milk chocolate candy which Mr. Hershey decided to name 'Hershey's Kisses Chocolates' in 1907.The Hershey's Kisses Chocolate brand was trademarked in 1924. Throughout the next two decades, Hershey introduced more products including Mr. Goodbar (1925), Hershey's Syrup (1926), chocolate chips (1928) and the Krackel bar (1938). The company was renamed Hershey Foods in 1968. It continued expanding its confectionery product lines, acquiring related companies and even diversifying into other food products. Significant acquisitions made by Hershey include San Giorgio Macaroni and Delmonico Foods (1966), Rowntree MacKintosh's (1970), Y&S Candies (1977), Dietrich's confectionery operations (1986), Peter Paul/Cadbury's US confectionery operations (1988); and Ronzoni Foods (1990). Hershey sold its US pasta business to New World Pasta in 1999. The company acquired Nabisco's Intense and Breath Freshener Mints and Gum businesses in 2000. In the following year, the company's Brazilian subsidiary, Hershey do Brasil, acquired the chocolate and confectionery business of Visagis. In the same year, Hershey sold the Luden's throat drops business to Pharmacia Consumer Healthcare, a unit of Pharmacia Company. Hershey sold a few of its non-chocolate confectionery candy brands to Farley's & Sathers Candy Company in 2002.The company signed a definitive agreement for the sale of the Sixlets confectionery candy brand with SweetWorks in the following year. Later in 2003, Hershey introduced the one gram Sugar Carb low calorie bars to the market and sold certain of its gum brands to Farley's & Sathers Candy.The company, through its Mexican subsidiary, Hershey Mexico, acquired Grupo Lorena, one of Mexico's top sugar ...