Hershey (HSY) FY2025 results: revenue $11.7 billion, up 4.4% on the year

Hershey was incorporated in Delaware on 24 October 1927 as successor to a business founded in 1894 by Milton S. Hershey. It sells chocolate, sweets, mints and other snacks under more than 85 brand names in approximately 65 countries, and calls itself the largest producer of quality chocolate in North America. It reports three segments: North America Confectionery, North America Salty Snacks and International. On 18 November 2025 it bought LesserEvil, a private maker of organic popcorn and puffed snacks sold in the United States and Canada, which it says complements the portfolio and adds manufacturing capacity; a year earlier it bought the Sour Strips candy brand from Actual Candy.

The segments

North America Confectionery covers the traditional chocolate and non-chocolate business in the United States and Canada, including gum and refreshment products, protein bars, spreads, snack bites and mixes, and pantry and food service lines. It also holds the retail operations, the Hershey's Chocolate World stores in Hershey, New York, Las Vegas, Niagara Falls and Singapore, and the licensing of certain trademarks and products to third parties around the world. North America Salty Snacks covers salty snacking in the United States, meaning ready-to-eat popcorn, baked and trans fat-free snacks, pretzels and other snacks. International groups the operating segments that are not individually material, with manufacturing in Mexico, Brazil, India and Malaysia mostly for those regions, plus confectionery sold into export markets across Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Africa.

The brands

The chocolate range is marketed under Hershey's, Reese's and Kisses, alongside Jolly Rancher, Almond Joy, Brookside, barkTHINS, Cadbury, Good & Plenty, Heath, Kit Kat, Payday, Rolo, Twizzlers, Whoppers and York, with ONE protein bars and the Ice Breakers, Breath Savers and Bubble Yum gum and mint lines. Pantry items cover baking products, toppings and sundae syrups under Hershey's, Reese's, Heath and Lily's, plus Hershey's and Reese's chocolate spreads and snack bites and mixes. Salty snacks are SkinnyPop and LesserEvil popcorn, Pirates Booty baked snacks and Dot's Homestyle Pretzels. Internationally the same brands are joined by regional ones such as Pelon Pelo Rico in Mexico, IO-IO snacks in Brazil and Sofit beverages in India.

Who buys and how it reaches them

Customers are mainly wholesale distributors, chain grocery stores, mass merchandisers, chain drug stores, vending companies, wholesale clubs, convenience stores, dollar stores, concessionaires and department stores, and all but the wholesalers resell to consumers in retail outlets. In 2025 approximately 27% of consolidated net sales went to McLane Company, one of the largest wholesale distributors in the United States to convenience stores, drug stores, wholesale clubs and mass merchandisers and the primary distributor of Hershey products to Walmart. The company puts its marketing on brand equity, product innovation and product quality, spending on identifying, developing, testing, making and marketing new products, and running promotional programmes aimed at customers and advertising aimed at consumers.

Cocoa and the other inputs

Cocoa products, meaning cocoa liquor, butter and powder processed from cocoa beans, are the main raw materials in its chocolate, bought from third-party suppliers who source beans grown mainly in Far Eastern, West African and Central and South American regions, West Africa accounting for approximately 70% of world supply. The filing notes that climate, extreme weather, crop disease and political unrest in producing countries have caused price swings but have never wiped out a country's crop or exports, and that other countries and physical stocks would buffer a large disruption. A trading company in Switzerland handles all of the cocoa procurement, covering price risk management, physical supply and sustainable sourcing oversight, with a focus on real-time access to market intelligence. The company also uses substantial quantities of sugar, corn products, Class II and IV dairy products, wheat products, peanuts, almonds and energy, mostly bought from United States suppliers for its domestic and Canadian operations.

Pricing, competition and people

Prices and product weights change to accommodate input costs, the competitive environment and profit objectives, with those changes helping to offset rises in raw and packaging materials, fuel, utilities, transportation and employee benefits. Its markets are highly competitive, against multinational, national, regional and local firms and large private companies and retailers, and the filing states that competition turns on product innovation, quality, price, brand recognition and loyalty, marketing, the ability to satisfy consumer preferences, convenience and service. Sales are typically higher in the third and fourth quarters on seasonal and holiday patterns, and since the company manufactures mainly for stock and fills orders within a few days, unfilled orders are not material. At 31 December 2025 it employed approximately 17,550 full-time and 2,045 part-time people worldwide, with collective bargaining agreements covering approximately 28% of them.

From Hershey's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended 31 December 2025. The filing

Written from the 10-K filed 17 February 2026: read the full 10-K.