Company profile
SEC EDGAR ↗- Industry
- Sugar & Confectionery Products
- Listed
- NYSE: HSY
- Incorporated
- DE
- Headquarters
- Hershey, PA
- Fiscal year end
- Dec 31
Financials
FY2025- Revenue
- $11.7B
- Net income
- $883.3M
- Total assets
- $13.7B
Latest full fiscal year from SEC filings (10-K) — SEC EDGAR ↗. Stratrix is a strategy publication, not a real-time financial data service.
The analyses
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Buying Hershey Means Convincing a Charitable Trust — and a Pennsylvania Judge
Mondelez offered $23 billion in 2016 and tried again at a ~$45 billion valuation in 2024. Both times the buyer that mattered wasn't a market—it was a charitable trust holding 80% of the vote that legally can't sell its stake without a Pennsylvania judge's permission.
8 min
The Founder Doctrine · People & Control
Hershey Can't Be Sold Without an Orphan School's Permission. That's by Design.
In 1918 Milton Hershey gave away his entire company - 5,000 shares worth $60 million - to a trust for an orphan school. A century later that trust holds ~80% of the voting power and has already killed a $12.5 billion takeover.
8 min
The Moat Anatomy · Moat & Competition
Hershey Walked Away From $23 Billion Partly to Keep Making Kit Kat Under License
Hershey makes Cadbury and Kit Kat in the US under license, not ownership. In 2016 it rejected a $23 billion Mondelēz bid — partly because buying Hershey would hand the Kit Kat license back to Nestlé for free.
7 min
The Counterfactual · Decision Forks
The Hershey Trust Approved the $12.5 Billion Sale. A Judge and a 1909 Deed Killed It.
Everyone remembers the Trust killing a $12.5 billion takeover to keep Hershey independent. The Trust actually started the sale and voted yes. The real blocker was a judge, an attorney general, and a deed signed in 1909 that makes Hershey unsellable no matter who's on the board.
8 min