Hershey (NYSE:HSY) executives used the company’s 2026 Investor Day at the New York Stock Exchange to outline a long-term strategy they call “Leading the Next Generation of Snacking,” emphasizing portfolio expansion beyond core chocolate, a new unified U.S. commercial model branded “ONE Hershey,” and technology-enabled supply chain investments aimed at supporting growth and funding productivity.
Leadership frames strategy around portfolio, retail execution, and supply chain
President and CEO Kirk Tanner said that after “my first seven months at Hershey,” he sees three pillars of successful consumer companies—“consumer obsession,” “customers,” and “colleagues”—as “alive and thriving” at Hershey. He said the company is “emerging stronger than ever after unprecedented cocoa inflation pressure,” arguing that Hershey invested through the period by reinvigorating core brands, building a “permissible snacking” portfolio, investing in IT talent and infrastructure, and transforming its cost structure.
He also highlighted macro forces shaping demand, including “health and wellness,” “GLP-1 adoption,” and evolving food policy, and said Hershey is leaning into “premiumization, functional, better for you, and a stronger omnichannel execution.”
Marketing and innovation: shifting from reach to “resonance”
Chief Growth Officer Stacy Taffet said snacking has been a “remarkably consistent growth category,” citing pre-COVID growth of “3% or higher annually” and a more recent “2%-3%” trajectory that has held amid headwinds. She said Hershey’s portfolio across sweet, salty, and protein categories participates in “nearly a quarter of total U.S. snacking today,” with “significant headroom to meet even more snacking occasions.”
Taffet outlined three priorities to maximize the current portfolio: modernize brand building, sharpen brand roles by occasion and need, and scale “our next set of billion-dollar brands.” She argued Hershey’s next advantage “isn’t more reach, it’s more resonance,” and described a brand-building model built on consumer insight, brand strategy, modern media execution, and real-time measurement.
She highlighted AI-enabled marketing productivity, saying Hershey has seen a “50% reduction in cost per asset,” reduced creative timelines “from months to weeks,” and localized content “to multiple markets in just days.” As an example, she cited the Reese’s Oreo launch as a “social-first” campaign that generated “billions of earned impressions” and delivered “1.5 times the effectiveness” of previous Reese’s campaigns, including a “147 index with Gen Z.”
Taffet said the company’s demand mapping identified “boost, connect, and treat” terrains across 12 spaces, and that extending beyond “treating” opens a “$300 billion total addressable market.” She also said Hershey plans to invest in brands including Dot’s, Kit Kat, Ice Breakers, and Jolly Rancher, with examples such as a U.S. Kit Kat relaunch “next year with an improved product and a big marketing push.”
ONE Hershey: unified selling model aims to unlock sweet-and-salty growth
U.S. Confection President Andrew Archambault said Hershey’s commercial capabilities are focused on “availability, affordability, and activation at retail,” and argued the company’s Revenue Growth Management and price-pack architecture provide flexibility, noting that “75% of our portfolio today is still at $4 or below.”
Archambault said shoppers often spend “less than a minute” searching in the confection aisle, and described moves such as transitioning to more stand-up packaging. He said retail resets combining packaging changes and improved aisle architecture have delivered a “19% lift in confection and a 12% lift in our salty portfolio.” He also said Hershey’s “top 100 revenue-producing items are only in about 60 ACV,” with a goal to reach “90 ACV.”
On activation, he pointed to brand partnerships and limited-time testing. He said Reese’s Oreo has been “a cultural phenomenon,” and described a Pokémon partnership tied to the brand’s 30th anniversary that produced a “10% lift in velocity” in the places it was activated. He also described the company using its “Velocity Lab” model to test products via limited-time offers rather than focus groups.
Executives positioned ONE Hershey as the unification of confection and salty under a single customer-facing approach. Tanner said it provides “one voice to our customer,” makes Hershey “easier to do business with,” and supports the company’s ambition to become “a total snacking company.” In Q&A, Tanner said the move was driven by “a combination” of customer pull and internal readiness, including integrated supply chain and SAP systems.
Supply chain: ingredient resiliency, network agility, and technology-driven productivity
Chief Supply Chain Officer Jason Reiman said his team’s role is to ensure products are available with the expected quality and value, while also funding the future through productivity. He said Hershey has invested in core brand capacity such as Reese’s, built “a world-class modern chocolate-making facility” in Hershey, Pennsylvania that is “fully digitally integrated,” and developed multi-category production assets including in-house salty manufacturing.
Reiman emphasized cocoa as a strategic ingredient and said Hershey’s advantage comes from “team, process, and technology,” including market intelligence, hedging tools, and governance. He pointed to shifts in global cocoa production, saying Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana have gone from “almost two-thirds” of global production five years ago to “less than 50%” today, while Ecuador has increased production “by over 50% over the last three years,” and Brazil has stated ambitions to double output.
He also highlighted the Hershey Income Accelerator program, which develops long-term contracts with farmers in Côte d’Ivoire to improve productivity and family income, and referenced a collaboration called “Together Cacao.”
On technology, Reiman described initiatives including spend visibility and should-cost modeling, “Connected Worker” tools on factory floors, “precision assortments” that tailor store-level assortments using geodemographic data, and “decision intelligence” to automate responses across supply chain signals. He said decision intelligence could increase productivity by “$50 million” and reduce inventory by “$100 million” over the next two years.
Financial outlook: margin recovery, balanced growth, and capital priorities
CFO Steve Voskuil said the company is “stronger today than we were two years ago” because the past period was not “two years of playing defense,” but rather continued investment in brands, talent, supply chain, innovation, and R&D. He said the company plans to use the commodity recovery period to build “durable” top- and bottom-line advantage.
Voskuil reiterated Hershey’s long-term algorithm, calling for “2%-4%” organic net revenue growth and “6%-8%” EPS growth longer term, while describing 2026 and 2027 as years of restoring profitability, with 2028 and beyond featuring a more “balanced” growth model across price, units, and occasions. In Q&A, he said Hershey has “good visibility” into cocoa coverage and highlighted productivity as a key building block for 2027, while acknowledging scenario planning and uncertainty.
Voskuil also said Hershey will sunset its transformation program by year-end and expects to have “over-delivered the savings and underspent the one-time cost.” He noted that productivity expectations have increased versus prior years, stating that “five years ago…1% productivity savings” was the benchmark, while “now we’re talking 3%.”
On capital allocation, Voskuil emphasized funding organic and inorganic investment, “consistent dividend growth” roughly in line with earnings with a payout “over 50%,” maintaining a strong balance sheet, and share repurchases. He described Hershey’s M&A approach as a “targeted nutrition plan,” emphasizing selectivity and strategic fit.
In closing remarks, Tanner said Hershey is focused on “the next chapter of growth,” balancing near-term performance with long-term investments, and targeting earnings recovery in 2027 before accelerating growth further in 2028.
About Hershey (NYSE:HSY)
The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) is a leading North American chocolatier and snack manufacturer headquartered in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The company develops, produces and markets a wide range of confectionery and snack products for retail, foodservice and international customers. Hershey’s business spans manufacturing, branded product marketing, packaging and distribution across grocery, convenience, mass merchant and e-commerce channels.
Hershey’s product portfolio centers on chocolate and sugar confectionery, including core brands such as Hershey’s, Reese’s, Hershey’s Kisses and Twizzlers, alongside non-chocolate snacks and confectionery brands.
