HERSHEY, Pa. — The Hershey Co. reported first-quarter sales and profit that beat Wall Street expectations, aided by higher prices.
The company saw an 8% increase in sales of its Ice Breakers mint and gum brand in the period, in part due to demand for breath fresheners among GLP-1 users.
“We’ve seen strong demand for gum and mints as the category benefits from functional snacking tailwinds, including GLP-1 adoption,” CEO Kirk Tanner said, releasing Hershey’s latest financial results.
Sales of Hershey’s chocolates and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups were up 7.9% in the 12 weeks ended March 29 compared with the year-earlier period.
“Consumer behavior remained really steady” through the quarter, Tanner said. “We kicked off the year strong and are on track to hit our financial targets for 2026.”
For fiscal 2026, Hershey expects net sales to grow between 4% and 5%.
Beyond higher prices, Hershey said its first-quarter financial performance benefited from declining cocoa costs, a reversal from recent quarters when rising chocolate prices had caused consumers to buy less and candy companies to change their recipes.
Hershey posted revenue of $3.1 billion, up 10.6% from a year earlier. Organic net sales increased 7.9%, driven primarily by pricing gains of about 10%. But those gains were partially offset by a 2% decline in volumes.
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