Hershey considers to start selling its confectionery in the UK and Europe. Until now, Hershey has been mainly existing on the North American confectionery market. International sales are making up only 14 per cent of Hershey’s total revenues of $5.3bn in 2009. However, since 2009 Hershey has shown strong signs of expansion to Europe as well. Infact in August, the company has established a European subsidiary in London and last year Hershey has been named as  a potential bidder for Cadbury deal.

According to press reports in UK, Asda, the UK subsidiary of Walmart, and UK’s second largest supermarket, is going to start selling Hershey products in the UK on an exclusive basis early next year. Although some of Hershey’s products are already available in UK, the company has no significant distribution in Europe compared to its arch-rival Mars.

In addition, the Financial Times reported  that Hershey is considering also to recruit a manager for European and Middle East travel retail business. The job will involve working to “develop routes to market” and “spearheading an increase

The European push forms part of a broader drive by the company to expand its business outside of North America, focusing on Latin America and Asia. These new markets can deliver more dynamic growth for the company than North America. On the other hand, Europe is more affluent in terms of profit margins. Nevertheless the competition from other European brands such as Cadbury/Kraft, Mars, Nestle, Lindt and Ferrero will be very tough for Hershey. 

The Hershey Company is one of the largest producers of consumer chocolate in North America, it has operations throughout the world with more than 12,000 employees.


Source: confectionerynews.com