Hershey’s chief financial officer Patricia Little has decided to retire in the spring of 2019 after working for the chocolate maker for nearly four years.
China has announced tariffs on approximately $60bn worth of US goods as a retaliation after the Trump administration slapped 25% tariffs on $200bn Chinese products earlier this year.
Hershey has posted a net sales increase of 5.3% in Q2, reaching $1.75bn, after it recently divested Tyrrells potato chips and Golden Monkey candy brand in China.
Hershey has sold Golden Monkey to Henan Yuxiang Food Technology Company (河南御翔食品科技有限公司) four years after it acquired the Shanghai-based confectionery brand for $577m.
The International Cocoa Initiative (ICI) has identified 14,986 child labor cases on the cocoa farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana since 2012, but warned the reality could be a lot worse.
Hershey increased the percentage of its sustainable cocoa beans to 75% and reduced its packaging waste by 18.5 million pounds, or 74%, in 2017, according the company’s latest corporate social responsibility report.
The National Confectioners Association (NCA) has named the most innovative product award winners of 2018 at the Sweets and Snacks Expo in Chicago (May 22-May 24, 2018).
Hershey is rumored to be selling Golden Monkey to China’s state-owned food processing company COFCO as early as next month, but it has declined to comment on the speculation.
Hershey’s CEO Michele Buck recently said the US snacking market, especially the categories the company participates in – confections, salty snacks and meat snacks – remain robust.
Susquehanna International Group (SIG) said the robust chocolate industry will likely turn Hershey’s business around later this year even though the company is among ‘the worst performing CPG stocks in the last three months.’
Hershey will release its first edible glitter-sprinkled gum in the US under its Ice Breakers brand starting April 15, 2018, as it believes the sparkle trend will sweep the food industry in 2018.
Mintel says mass produced chocolate brands such as Mars and Hershey are losing market share to imported premium chocolate brands in China primarily due to lack of innovation.
