The Hershey Company reported its third quarter 2025 financial results Thursday, which showed retail sales growth despite multi-million-dollar tariff expenses.
According to The Hershey Company CEO Kirk Tanner, who joined Hershey as CEO in August, the company’s third-quarter results surpassed expectations, leading to several accomplishments year-to-date, such as returning Hershey’s chocolate retail sales growth to 4% after a 1% decline in 2024.
During Thursday’s earnings call, The Hershey Company’s Chief Financial Officer, Steven Voskuil, said tariff expenses will cost Hershey $160-170 million, and some of that cost (not all of it) will be passed to the consumer.
This summer, the company confirmed plans to raise prices, citing the rise in cocoa prices.
The tariff projection is $10 million less than expected, which reflects the “lower of Canadian retaliatory tariffs partly offset by fluctuations in other country-specific rates.”
In July, after Hershey projected tariffs would cost them $170-180 million, White House spokesman Kush Desai responded by saying, “President Trump’s tariffs have helped secure trade deals that provide unprecedented market access for American exports to economies that in total are worth $30 trillion with over one billion people. As the American economy continues roaring back thanks to the Administration’s economic agenda of deregulation and The One Big Beautiful Bill’s tax cuts, American companies are set for historic growth at home and abroad.”
On the salty side of Hershey products, Tanner noted that the company’s SkinnyPop brand achieved 6% retail sales growth.
