The Hershey Company history

Hershey Makes His First Chocolate Sale: 1895

In 1896, Hershey built a milk-processing plant so he could create and refine a recipe for his milk chocolate candies.

In 1899, he developed the Hershey process, which is less sensitive to milk quality than traditional methods.

In 1905, Milton Hershey built his famous chocolate company in the town known today as Hershey.

Milton S. Hershey built Hershey Park in 1906 so his employees would have a pleasant environment for picnicking and boating.

In 1907, he introduced a new candy: bite-sized, flat-bottomed, conical pieces of chocolate that he named "Hershey's Kiss". At first, each was wrapped by hand in a square of aluminum foil.

One of Hershey's most enduring contributions was the Hershey Industrial School for orphans, which he established in 1909 with his wife Catherine.

In 1911, its sales of $5 million were more than eight times the $600,000 made ten years earlier at the company's start.

In 1918 Hershey turned over the bulk of his fortune to the M.S. Hershey Foundation, which supports the Milton Hershey School, a vocational school founded by him.

At first, they were individually wrapped in little squares of silver foil, but in 1921 machine wrapping was introduced.

Harry Burnett Reese invented Reese's Peanut Butter Cups after founding the H.B. Reese Candy Company in 1923.

In 1925, he introduced the peanut-filled Mr.

1927: The firm incorporates as Hershey Chocolate Company and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

Since 1928, H.B. “Harry” Reese’s Candy Company, also located in Hershey, had been making chocolate-covered peanut butter cups.

In 1930, Milton S. Hershey founded Hershey Country Club, giving up the first floor in his High Point Mansion to serve as the Clubhouse.

By 1931, 30 years after the company was established, Hershey was selling $30 million worth of chocolate a year.

Though Hershey's intentions seem to have been wholly sincere, there was always some suspicion about his "company town." Labor strife came to the company in 1937, when it suffered its first strike.

In 1938, another famous chocolate product was introduced: the Krackel Chocolate Bar, a chocolate bar with crisped rice.

Though bitter, the strike was soon settled, and by 1940 the chocolate plant was unionized.

13, 1945, Hershey, Pa.), American manufacturer and philanthropist who founded the Hershey Chocolate Corporation and was instrumental in popularizing chocolate candy throughout much of the world.

In 1948, Mars bought out Murrie and became one of Hershey's main competitors.

Reese died on May 16, 1956, in West Palm Beach, Florida, leaving the company to his six sons.

On July 2, 1963, the H.B. Reese Candy Company merged with the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in a tax-free stock-for-stock merger.

Among its acquisitions were two pasta manufacturers, San Giorgio Macaroni Inc., in Lebanon, Pennsylvania, and Delmonico Foods Inc., in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1966.

In 1967, the Cory Corporation, a Chicago-based food-service company, was acquired.

Due to its expansions beyond chocolate, the company changed its name in 1968 to the Hershey Foods Corporation.

In 1969, only six years after the Reese/Hershey merger, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups became The Hershey Company's top seller.

On July 19, 1970, Hershey's first consumer advertisement, a full-page ad for Hershey's Syrup, appeared in 114 newspapers.

The facility was established to replace tours of the actual plant, which were discontinued in 1973 due to an overload of traffic.

Under the direction of its chief executive officer, William E. Dearden, Hershey adopted an aggressive marketing plan in 1976 to offset its shrinking market share.

In 1977, Hershey acquired a 16 percent interest in A.B. Marabou, a Swedish confectionery company, and bought Y&S Candies Inc., the nation's leading manufacturer of licorice.

Another 1979 acquisition, the Friendly Ice Cream Corporation, a 750-restaurant chain based in New England, tripled the number of employees on Hershey's payroll.

In 1982, Hershey opened another plant, in Stuarts Draft, Virginia.

In 1984, Hershey purchased American Beauty, another pasta brand, from Pillsbury and formed the Hershey Pasta Group.

In 1986, Hershey's made a brief foray into cough drops when it acquired the Luden's cough drops brand.

In June 1987, Hershey acquired the Canadian candy and nut operations of Nabisco Brands for its subsidiary Hershey Canada Inc.

After Hershey's competitor Nestlé acquired Rowntree's in 1988, it was still required to honor the agreement, and so Hershey continues to make and market the products in the United States The license would revert to Nestlé if Hershey were sold.

Nickel for your thoughts? As part of a 1989 promotion, each PAYDAY Peanut Caramel Bar came with a free nickel (individually wrapped, of course).

In 1990, the company introduced the Hershey brand to the Japanese market through a joint venture with Fujiya.

In 1991, Hershey acquired the German chocolate maker Gubor Schokoladen, which in the first few years after the takeover failed to meet Hershey's expectations.

In 1992, the firm purchased an 18.6 percent interest in the Norwegian confectionery firm Freia Marabou, but then promptly sold the stake the following year after it was outbid for majority control by Philip Morris.

Later, in 1993, Hershey acquired the Italian confectionery business of Heinz Italia S.p.A. for $130 million, which primarily gave it the Sperlari brand, a leader in nonchocolate confectionery products in Italy.

In response, Hershey announced a restructuring in late 1994, taking a $106.1 million aftertax charge.

Through such moves, Hershey became the leader in dry pasta in the United States by 1995.

Hershey made a major expansion into non-chocolate candies in 1996 when it acquired Leaf North America, owner of the Jolly Rancher and Payday brands.

In 1998 the company sold off its pasta operations.

1999: The firm sells its pasta business to New World Pasta LLC.

Hershey continued to add to product line in 2000 with the purchase of RJR Nabisco Inc.'s mints and gum business.

While net income fell during 2001, sales increased by eight percent to $4.5 billion.

The seven Hershey trustees who voted to sell Hershey Foods on September 17, 2002, for US$12.5 billion to the William Wrigley Jr.

In December 2004, Hershey acquired the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp. from The Shansby Group.

In July 2005, Hershey acquired the Berkeley, California-based boutique chocolate-maker Scharffen Berger.

In September 2006, ABC News reported that several Hershey chocolate products were reformulated to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil as an emulsifier.

In December 2011, Hershey reached an agreement to acquire Brookside Foods Ltd., a privately held confectionery company based in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

As of September 20, 2012, Reese's was the best-selling candy brand in the United States, with sales of $2.603 billion, and the fourth-best-selling brand globally, with sales of $2.679 billion.

In April 2015, the Hershey chocolate plant on East Chocolate Avenue in Hershey, Pennsylvania was demolished to make way for mixed-use development.

An August 2016 attempt to sell Hershey to Mondelez International was abandoned because of objections by the Hershey Trust.

In 2017, Hershey acquired Amplify Snack Brands, Austin, Texas-based maker of SkinnyPop, in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.6 billion.

In September 2018, Hershey announced to buy Pirate Brands from B&G Foods for $420 million in an all-cash deal.

In August 2019, Hershey announced it would purchase protein bar maker One Brands LLC for $397 million.

In 2020, after 57 years of stock splits, the original 666,316 shares of Hershey common stock received by the Reese family represented 16 million Hershey shares valued at $2.5 billion, paying annual dividends of $51.4 million.