Hershey CEO: Interested In Acquiring Only Those Companies That Have Capabilities We Don't Have

Confectionary maker Hershey Co HSY is facing the same challenges that every other manufacturer of snacking products is experiencing, consumer preference shifting towards healthier options.

Hershey CEO, John P. Bilbrey, was recently on CNBC to talk about the growing trend among consumers of wanting to know what goes inside their product and the company’s plans for acquisitions.

Consumer Wants To Know

“We talk a lot about is something natural, is it organic and all of these different things, but what we really understand is consumers are saying, I want to understand what’s in the product, Is it simple? Is it something I can pronounce?” Bilbrey said. “So, we have products that really offer that, but remember in our category first of all we are less than 2p of the total caloric intake in the American diet in the total confectionary category.”

He continued, “And people come to our category knowing that it’s indulgent and so we want to make sure they get great taste and high quality products. When they make the decision to reward themselves, we want to give them the product that they can really enjoy and we think that we do that and we think that there’s just going to be continue opportunity for growth on our brand.

What Are Your Plans For Acquisitions?

“The way we think about it is does a brand or a company [devise] capabilities we don’t have today,” Bilbrey replied. “So, if a company had a great brand that we thought would fit with our portfolio, we would be interested. If they had great manufacturing or distribution capability, we would be interested in that as well.”