Hershey's profit rebounded in the third quarter of 2026, helped by higher prices and cheaper cocoa. The open question is whether shoppers keep buying less after the quantity sold fell about 10%.
A Reese's peanut butter cup grabbed at a supermarket checkout probably came from Hershey. The company is above all a chocolate maker. It sells brands such as Hershey's, Reese's and Kisses mainly in the United States and Canada, alongside salty snacks and a smaller business abroad. It earns the gap between what stores and distributors pay for those brands and what it costs to make them.
Shoppers pay the store, but Hershey sells to retailers and to wholesalers that resell to stores. One wholesaler, the main supplier of Hershey's products to Wal-Mart, handles a large share of sales. Price is the company's main lever. The costs that matter most are ingredients and running the factories. Selling, marketing and administration take a steady slice of revenue, so the big swings come from the cost of goods and pass largely into operating profit, what is left after running the core business but before interest and taxes. North America Confectionery produces almost all the profit. Salty snacks have been the growth arm, while the international business lost money in the third quarter of 2026.
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