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Hershey makes and sells chocolate, candy, and salty snacks that people buy in stores all over the world.
The Hershey Company is one of the biggest candy makers in the world, and it lives in two related worlds: sweets and salty snacks. The sweet side is still the main engine, bringing in roughly 80 percent of sales, built on chocolate bars, kisses, and Reese's peanut butter cups. The salty side, which has been growing faster, includes things like Skinny Pop popcorn and Dot's pretzels. Both sides sell mostly through grocery stores, big-box retailers, and convenience stores, which buy the products and put them on shelves.
Think of Hershey as a company that owns the checkout aisle and the candy bowl at Halloween. Its brands are so familiar that people often pick them out of habit, and that habit is what gives Hershey pricing power, the ability to raise prices without losing too many customers. In recent years the company has leaned on that power as cocoa costs spiked, pushing prices up to protect profits. It also bought its way deeper into salty snacks, spending over a billion dollars on Dot's Pretzels and other brands to reduce its reliance on chocolate alone.
The business throws off a lot of cash, and Hershey uses it in a few simple ways: paying a growing dividend, buying back some of its own stock, and making smaller acquisitions. The company was founded in 1894 by Milton Hershey in Pennsylvania, and it still carries that hometown identity. The big risks today are cocoa prices, which have been unusually high, and changing tastes as some shoppers look for less sugar. Still, Hershey's real advantage is simple: it owns brands that people already love.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026