NEW YORK, NY — Hershey is sounding a note of caution on its 2024 profit growth as cocoa costs surge, resulting in higher chocolate prices for consumers. Cocoa futures prices have doubled over the past year, reaching an unprecedented all-time high of $5,874 per metric ton on Friday. Adverse weather conditions in West Africa, a key cocoa-producing region, are being attributed to damaged crop yields, contributing to the upward trajectory of cocoa prices.
Citi analyst Thomas Palmer expressed concern, stating, “The magnitude and pace of recent price increases seem to be unprecedented.” With Valentine's Day just around the corner, chocolate is in high demand, but inflation worries are causing consumers to approach rising food prices more cautiously.
Hershey's Headquarters
(Credit: HersheyPA.com)
Hershey CEO Michele Buck acknowledges the challenges and reassures consumers, saying, “Given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business.” However, the company anticipates that its full-year earnings per share will remain relatively flat, citing higher cocoa and sugar costs as contributing factors.
Chief Financial Officer Steven Voskuil emphasized that the confection business will be particularly affected by the margin impact due to rising cocoa prices. On Friday, Hershey's stock saw a decline of 3.4%, reflecting the challenges posed by the current cocoa market conditions.
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You could just take the chocolate part out of the title. Should read "Biden economy bad". We've been in a recession since October 2023 but they won't admit it.
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PermalinkDo you do anything other than cry about everything and anything? 😭❄️
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PermalinkYou do realize the snowflake term is meant for people from your generation right?? I'm much older than your living in your grandmothers basement ass self. Now go play in the street like your momma asked years back
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Permalink😂 Says the crying clown🤡 you literally cry about everything, your always so angry, have fun with that 😡😂😂😂
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PermalinkWow, you're so unbothered by these opinions people have. I can tell from your comments that we are dealing with the main boss, head honcho, mastermind of a movement.
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PermalinkAlso, actions speak louder than words, you, act like a HUGE crybaby ❄️, so...if it walks like a duck.... 😂🦆
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PermalinkBuckfoejiden, "Person" has a point. In the future, the resolution of political differences is more likely to involve kinetic disputes than in the past few decades. If, as time progresses, it seems more like conflicts in this society are resolved unfairly and with decreasing measures of mercy and of respect for personal rights or the democratic process, there's probably good reason for that.
Everything changes...
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Permalinkexcept mouth breathing basement dwellers like "A person". They never change. (their clothes, or their lifestyle.)
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PermalinkWell, "Person," (nutria posting detected,) may not understand that, among other threats, the entire Chinese military is on it's way to his mom's house.
However, I'm positively gnostic that we're all going to be learning about lifestyle changes in the coming years. We would have already learned about some of those changes if the governor wasn't shipping hordes of change throughout the country in contravention of the feds.
You may want to save some of the energy from your unfocused anger for the gym and a practical hobby like mechanics or learning foreign languages. We're living through history, slowly, persistently, and incrementally.
And give Expat a break for the tepidity of his Gooberish Boomerism. People may one day look back on such attempts to overcome partisanship as a relic from a time when the stakes weren't so high. A relic of a golden age...
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PermalinkBiden's economy is so bad people have had to move back in with their moms/grandmoms and live in their basements pounding away at the keyboard like internet thugs! ↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓↓
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PermalinkWell here's the thing clown, you know nothing about my lifestyle, also you need not worry about another's lifestyle, so when you spew your mouth garbage, it's just that, mouth garbage, now when I call you a crybaby that is true, because we can all see your constant crying in the form of your comments👀🤡😂
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