Masters of Scale · Sep 29, 2026 · 27m · 17m saved
With Kirk Tanner, President and CEO of The Hershey Company
The Hershey Company puts more than 30% of its portfolio into portion-controlled packaging, a bet aimed straight at consumers on GLP-1 drugs.
Rivals feared Ozempic and Wegovy would shrink candy demand. Hershey CEO Kirk Tanner says his own research shows the opposite: GLP-1 users aren't giving up chocolate, they're buying smaller, sometimes pricier, portions of it.
"They're not wanting to compromise the things that they love, and they know they have control."
Tanner spent 32 years at PepsiCo before taking over Hershey in August 2025 as its ninth CEO in the company's 132-year history, inheriting a chocolate market that had just come off record cocoa prices.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 27 minutes of audio, 10 minutes of reading.
Here are the 9 takeaways that matter.
Key Takeaways
Cocoa prices hit "unprecedented levels," and Hershey still prices 75% of its portfolio under $4
Costs have since stabilized but remain well above their historic norm
Halloween shipments are already in stores, and Hershey tracks daily sales and consumer sentiment through the whole season, not just one night
Reese's Oreo and the new Hershey Creme Bar are built from pairing two things consumers already liked separately
Cultural relevance, not the recipe, is what keeps a 132-year-old brand alive, Tanner says, pointing to a Milton Hershey biopic as this fall's marketing moment
A grandson of Reese's co-founder went public with complaints about a recipe change, and Tanner's answer was that there are always critics
SkinnyPop, Dot's Pretzels and LesserEvil are Hershey's bet on "permissible snacking," a framework Tanner brought from his 32 years at PepsiCo
GLP-1 users haven't dropped candy, they've shrunk the portion: over 30% of Hershey's portfolio is now built for portion control
Premium lines like the Creme Bars, Cadbury and Brookside are growing three times faster than the category
A charitable trust, not the stock market, is Hershey's largest shareholder, which Tanner says has kept activists away
An AI tool now tells Tanner which store to walk into next, part of the "One Hershey" integration of the company's sales teams
1. Cocoa Prices Spike
Bob Safian, host of Rapid Response, asked Tanner why chocolate has generated so much news this year.
Cocoa hit unprecedented prices, and Hershey still calls itself affordable
"Yeah, so there's been a lot of inflationary pressure on cocoa for the last couple of years, and the price of cocoa reached some unprecedented levels." — Kirk Tanner
Tanner said cocoa costs have since stabilized and come down some, though they remain well above their historic norm. He pushed back on chocolate being reclassified as an unaffordable luxury.
"Look, if you think about affordability, 75% of our portfolio is still under $4." — Kirk Tanner
He said the category is built on small moments rather than meals: "This is a treat category, just these small moments, moments of celebration, moments of reward. It is not a meal. It's not a meal replacement."
