What changed in this filing

/stocks — the workspaceLOADING

Item 1. Business

2024-02-20 compared with 2023-02-17 · 28 added, 26 removed, 171 unchanged (24% of the section changed)

20 unchanged sentences

Business Acquisitions and Divestitures

On May 31, 2023, we completed the acquisition of certain assets that provide additional manufacturing capacity from Weaver Popcorn Manufacturing, Inc.

(“Weaver”), a leader in the production and co-packing of microwave popcorn and ready-to-eat popcorn, and former co-manufacturer of the Company’s SkinnyPop brand.

In December 2021, we completed the acquisition of Pretzels Inc.

3 unchanged sentences

Pretzels provides Hershey deep pretzel category and product expertise and the manufacturing capabilities to support brand growth and future pretzel innovation.

Additionally in December 2021, we completed the acquisition of Dot’s Pretzels, LLC (“Dot’s”), previously a privately held company that produces and sells pretzels and other snack food products to retailers and distributors in the United States, with Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels snacks as its primary product.

Dot’s is the fastest-growing scale brand in the pretzel category and complements Hershey’s snacks portfolio.

In June 2021, we completed the acquisition of Lily’s Sweets, LLC (“Lily’s”), previously a privately held company that sells a line of sugar-free and low-sugar confectionery foods to retailers and distributors in the United States and Canada.

Lily’s products include dark and milk chocolate style bars, baking chips, peanut butter cups and other confection products that complement Hershey’s confectionery and confectionery-based portfolio.

The Hershey Company | 2023 Form 10-K | Page 2

In January 2021, we completed the divestiture of Lotte Shanghai Foods Co., Ltd.

1 unchanged sentence

Total proceeds from the divestiture and the impact on our consolidated financial statements were immaterial.

During the second quarter of 2020, we completed the divestitures of KRAVE Pure Foods, Inc.

(“Krave”), which was previously included within the North America Salty Snacks segment, and the Scharffen Berger and Dagoba brands, both of which were previously included within the North America Confectionery segment results in our consolidated financial statements.

Total proceeds from the divestitures and the impact on our Consolidated Statements of Income, both individually and on an aggregate basis, were immaterial.

Products and Brands

7 unchanged sentences

• Within our North America Salty Snacks segment, we have our salty snack items.

This includes ready-to-eat SkinnyPop popcorn, baked and trans fat free Pirates Booty snacks, Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels snacks and other snack brands such as Paqui.

This includes ready-to-eat SkinnyPop popcorn, baked and trans fat free Pirates Booty snacks and Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels snacks.

• Within our International segment, we manufacture, market and sell many of these same brands, as well as other brands that are marketed regionally, such as Pelon Pelo Rico confectionery products in Mexico, IO-IO snack products in Brazil and Sofit beverage products in India.

27 unchanged sentences

We sell our brands in highly competitive markets with many other global multinational, national, regional and local firms.

Some of our competitors are large companies with significant resources and substantial international operations.

Some of our competitors are large private companies, as well as large retailers, that have significant resources and substantial international operations.

Competition in our product categories is based on product innovation, product quality, price, brand recognition and loyalty, effectiveness of marketing and promotional activity, the ability to identify and satisfy consumer preferences, as well as convenience and service.

43 unchanged sentences

Environmental Considerations

Beyond ordinary operating and capital expenditures that we make to comply with government regulations, including environmental laws and regulations, we have made a number of voluntary commitments to protect and reduce our environmental impacts in recent years, including efforts to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions across our own operations and supply chain.

Our climate change related investments and expenditures primarily focus on achieving a 50% absolute reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and a 25% absolute reduction in our Scope 3 GHG emissions by 2030 (compared to a 2018 baseline), as well as having 100% of plastic packaging be recyclable, reusable or compostable and 25 million pounds of packaging be eliminated by 2030.

Beyond ordinary operating and capital expenditures that we make to comply with government regulations, including environmental laws and regulations, we have made a number of voluntary commitments to drive long-term growth and business resilience and reduce our environmental impacts, including efforts to eliminate commodity-driven deforestation and reduce greenhouse gas (“GHG”) emissions across our own operations and supply chain.

Our climate change related investments and expenditures primarily focus on achieving a 50% absolute reduction in our Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and a 25% absolute reduction in our Scope 3 GHG emissions by 2030 (compared to a 2018 baseline), as well as having 100% of plastic packaging be recyclable, reusable or compostable and eliminating 25 million pounds of packaging by 2030.

All of our climate-related investments are in progress or on track as outlined in our Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) Report.

The annual operating and capital expenditures associated with these ordinary course payments and additional climate change commitments are not material with respect to our results of operations, capital expenditures or competitive position.

3 unchanged sentences

This belief resulted in a strong investment in local communities and the establishment of Milton Hershey School for disadvantaged kids.

We continue that legacy today through our holistic environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) strategy:

We continue that legacy today through our global sustainability strategy:

Our Shared Goodness Promise, which guides how we empower the remarkable people who make and sell our brands, interact with farming communities that grow our ingredients, deliver on our commitments to consumers, customers, and external stakeholders, protect the environment and support children and youth.

19 unchanged sentences

We continue to invest in training, workplace resources and leading systems and processes to ensure the responsible management of all facilities.

Additionally, continuous listening surveys are distributed throughout the year to all employees globally.

These short and fast surveys reach all of our employees around the world to hear their thoughts on the Company’s direction and their place in it.

Additionally, continuous listening surveys are distributed throughout the year to all employees globally to hear their thoughts on the Company’s direction and their place in it.

These continuous touchpoints allow for real-time feedback and action from the Company.

These surveys are further supplemented with quarterly and

These surveys are further

The Hershey Company | 2023 Form 10-K | Page 6

informative enterprise and team town halls, which, in conjunction with the continuous listening surveys, generate stronger employee engagement with the Company’s strategy, initiatives and leadership.

Further, in June 2022, the Company conducted its first annual Ethics and Compliance Survey to assess employees’ perception of the health of ethics and compliance at Hershey.

supplemented with quarterly and informative enterprise and team town halls, which, in conjunction with the continuous listening surveys, generate stronger employee engagement with the Company’s strategy, initiatives and leadership.

• Talent Acquisition, Development and Training .

2 unchanged sentences

We have partnered with leading online content experts and increased internal learning development to expand our catalog of online and classroom courses.

Additionally, we have co-created a culture of development with the enthusiastic support of our employees.

Through individual development plans, learning opportunities, feedback and coaching, employees can build careers at The Hershey Company, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of our eight executive officers were promoted from within the organization (see Information about Our Executive Officers ).

Additionally, we co-created a culture of development with the enthusiastic support of our employees.

Through individual development plans, learning opportunities, feedback and coaching, employees can build careers at The Hershey Company, as evidenced by the fact that the majority of our ten executive officers were promoted from within the organization (see Information about Our Executive Officers ).

• Compensation, Benefits and Wellness .

2 unchanged sentences

The Company also offers SmartFlex benefits which is our suite of policies that allows individuals to create their own balance between work and personal life, including flexing work time based on work priorities or personal commitments, such as caring for children or family members.

We believe that this flexibility improves productivity, job satisfaction and increases employee engagement.

We believe that this flexibility improves productivity, boosts job satisfaction and increases employee engagement.

Additionally, the Company offers a “Best of Both” flexible work model for corporate and commercial employees to balance work and personal well-being.

This model allows employees the option to work either remote, in-office, or both, depending on individual needs, personal schedules and work demands.

This model allows employees the option to work either remotely, in-office, or both, depending on individual needs, personal schedules and work demands.

This offers the benefits of flexibility and in-person collaboration, while maintaining productivity and overall job satisfaction.

3 unchanged sentences

Additionally, five of our 11 Board members are women (45% representation).

In 2022, we maintained fair and equitable pay achievements, including 1:1 aggregate people of color pay equity for salaried employees in the United States (2021) and 1:1 aggregate gender pay (2020).

Further, our eight employee-led Business Resource Groups, which include Abilities First, African American, Asian, GenH (Generations), Latino, Prism (LGBTQ), Veteran’s and Women’s, play a critical role in attracting diverse talent, providing mentoring and career development opportunities, delivering commercial business insights and connecting people to the Company and the communities where we do business.

In 2022, the Company was ranked #6 on DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity and was ranked as a top 50 company on Forbes Top Female Friendly Companies.

Additionally, the Company also ranked as a top 30 company on Wall Street Journal’s Top 250 Best-Managed Companies of 2022.

In 2023, we maintained fair and equitable pay achievements, including 1:1 aggregate people of color pay equity (2021) and 1:1 aggregate gender pay (2020) for salaried employees in the United States.

Further, our eight employee-led Business Resource Groups, which include Abilities First, Black Heritage, Asian and Pacific Islander, GenH (Generations), Latino, Prism (LGBTQ), Veteran’s and Women’s, play a critical role in attracting diverse talent, providing mentoring and career development opportunities, delivering commercial business insights and connecting people to the Company and the communities where we do business.

In 2023, the Company was ranked #3 on DiversityInc’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity and was ranked as a top 50 company on Forbes Top Companies for Women.

Additionally, the Company also ranked as a top 30 company on Wall Street Journal’s Top 250 Best-Managed Companies of 2023, and was recognized as a Best Place to Work for Disability Inclusion based on our Disability Equality Index score.

• Community and Social Impact .

Our philanthropy and volunteerism efforts reflect how we live out the Company’s value of making moments of goodness, from supporting causes our employees care about to investing in the long-term success of the communities where we live and work.

Our philanthropy and volunteerism efforts reflect how we live out the Company’s value of Making More Moments of Goodness, from supporting causes our employees care about to investing in the long-term success of the communities where we live and work.

We work closely with counterparts in each of our plant and office locations across the United States and globally to identify local community needs and craft tailored approaches to provide support.

1 unchanged sentence

The Hershey Company | 2023 Form 10-K | Page 7

Business Realignment Activities and Strategic Initiatives

From time to time, we implement business realignment activities to support key strategic initiatives designed to maintain long-term growth.

Further to such goal, we completed our International Optimization Program in 2023, an initiative which began in the fourth quarter of 2020 and was designed to increase our operating effectiveness and efficiency, to reduce our costs and/or to generate savings that can be reinvested in other areas of our business.

In February 2024, the Board of Directors approved the Advancing Agility & Automation Initiative, which is a multi-year productivity program to improve supply chain and manufacturing-related spend, optimize selling, general and administrative expenses, leverage new technology and business models to further simplify and automate processes, and generate long-term savings.

Costs associated with business realignment activities are classified in our Consolidated Statements of Income as described in Note 9 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.

Available Information

11 unchanged sentences

Compared sentence by sentence after normalising whitespace, quotation marks, case and digits, so re-formatting and restated figures do not read as changed language. Wording changes appear as one removal and one addition. The current filing and the prior one are authoritative.

What changed 10-K

Item 1. Business