Hershey 10-Q 2022-10-02

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-Q

For the quarterly period ended October 2, 2022

OR

For the transition period from to_

Commission file number 1-183

THE HERSHEY COMPANY

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

19 East Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, PA 17033

(Address of principal executive offices and Zip Code)

(717) 534-4200

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes x No ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act. (Check one):

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No x

Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the registrant’s classes of common stock, as of the latest practicable date.

Common Stock, one dollar par value—146,968,799 shares, as of October 30, 2022.

Class B Common Stock, one dollar par value—58,113,777 shares, as of October 30, 2022.

THE HERSHEY COMPANY

Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q

For the Period Ended October 2, 2022

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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PART I — FINANCIAL INFORMATION

THE HERSHEY COMPANY

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

(in thousands, except per share amounts)

(unaudited)

See Notes to Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements.

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THE HERSHEY COMPANY

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

(in thousands)

(unaudited)

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This Management’s Discussion and Analysis (“MD&A”) is intended to provide an understanding of Hershey’s financial condition, results of operations and cash flows by focusing on changes in certain key measures from year to year. The MD&A should be read in conjunction with our Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements and accompanying notes. This discussion contains a number of forward-looking statements, all of which are based on current expectations. Actual results may differ materially. Refer to the Safe Harbor Statement below as well as the Risk Factors and other information contained in our 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K for information concerning the key risks to achieving future performance goals.

The MD&A is organized in the following sections:

• Overview

• Trends Affecting Our Business

• Consolidated Results of Operations

• Segment Results

• Liquidity and Capital Resources

• Safe Harbor Statement

OVERVIEW

Hershey is a global confectionery leader known for making more moments of goodness through chocolate, sweets, mints and other great tasting snacks. We are the largest producer of quality chocolate in North America, a leading snack maker in the United States (“U.S.”) and a global leader in chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery. We market, sell and distribute our products under more than 100 brand names in approximately 80 countries worldwide.

Our principal product offerings include chocolate and non-chocolate confectionery products; gum and mint refreshment products and protein bars; pantry items, such as baking ingredients, toppings and beverages; and snack items such as spreads, bars, and snack bites and mixes, popcorn and pretzels.

Business Acquisitions and Divestiture

In December 2021, we completed the acquisition of Pretzels Inc. (“Pretzels”), previously a privately held company that manufactures and sells pretzels and other salty snacks for other branded products and private labels in the United States. Pretzels is an industry leader in the pretzel category with a product portfolio that includes filled, gluten free and seasoned pretzels, as well as extruded snacks that complements Hershey’s snacks portfolio. Based in Bluffton, Indiana, Pretzels operates three manufacturing locations in Indiana and Kansas. Pretzels provides Hershey deep pretzel category and product expertise and the manufacturing capabilities to support brand growth and future pretzel innovation. Additionally, 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.

In January 2021, we completed the divestiture of Lotte Shanghai Foods Co., Ltd., which was previously included within the International segment results in our consolidated financial statements. Total proceeds from the divestiture and the impact on our consolidated financial statements were immaterial.

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TRENDS AFFECTING OUR BUSINESS

On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization designated coronavirus disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) as a global pandemic, which has spread worldwide and impacted various markets around the world, including the U.S. Throughout the pandemic we have remained committed to promoting the health and safety of our employees and communities and helping to maintain the global food supply. Through the first nine months of 2022, relatively minimal COVID-19 restrictions remained as vaccination status (including vaccine boosters) continued to increase around the world, albeit with slower than anticipated rollouts and challenges within certain countries. The lifting of restrictions has resulted in daily activities and habits being more representative of pre-pandemic times. However, beginning in 2021, and continuing through the nine months ended October 2, 2022, the continued strong demand for consumer goods and the effects of COVID-19 mitigation strategies have led to broad-based supply chain disruptions across the U.S. and globally, including inflation on many consumer products, labor shortages and demand outpacing supply. As a result, during the nine months ended October 2, 2022, we continued to experience corresponding incremental costs and gross margin pressures (see Results of Operations included in this MD&A). We are continuing to work closely with our business units, contract manufacturers, distributors, contractors and other external business partners to minimize the potential impact on our business.

In addition to COVID-19 and broad-based supply chain disruptions, certain geopolitical events, specifically the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, have increased global economic and political uncertainty. For the nine months ended October 2, 2022, this conflict did not have a material impact on our commodity prices or supply availability. However, we are continuing to monitor for any significant escalation or expansion of economic or supply chain disruptions or broader inflationary costs, which may result in material adverse effects on our results of operations.

We experienced an increase in our net sales during the three months ended October 2, 2022, which was primarily driven by strong everyday performance on our core U.S. confection brands and salty snack brands (see Segment Results included in this MD&A), partially offset by the aforementioned supply chain disruptions and gross margin pressures. As of October 2, 2022, we believe we have sufficient liquidity to satisfy our key strategic initiatives and other material cash requirements; however, we continue to evaluate and take action, as necessary, to preserve adequate liquidity and ensure that our business can operate effectively in the current economic environment. We continue to monitor our discretionary spending across the organization (see Liquidity and Capital Resources included in this MD&A).

Based on the length and severity of COVID-19 and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, including broad-based supply chain disruptions, rising levels of inflation, new trends in COVID-19 outbreaks and hotspots, the spread of and emergence of new COVID-19 variants, resurgences of COVID-19 cases and the continued distribution of vaccinations, we may experience continued volatility in retail foot traffic, consumer shopping and consumption behavior and may experience increasing supply chain costs and higher inflation. We will continue to evaluate the nature and extent of these potential and evolving impacts on our business, consolidated results of operations, segment results, liquidity and capital resources.

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The total amount of short-term debt, net of cash, amounted to net debt of $466.1 million and net debt of $610.2 million, at October 2, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively. A hypothetical 100 basis point increase in interest rates applied to this variable-rate short-term debt as of October 2, 2022 would have changed interest expense by approximately $3.9 million for the first nine months of 2022 and $2.4 million for 2021.

We consider our current risk related to market fluctuations in interest rates on our remaining debt portfolio, excluding fixed-rate debt converted to variable rates with fixed-to-floating instruments, to be minimal since this debt is largely long-term and fixed-rate in nature. Generally, the fair market value of fixed-rate debt will increase as interest rates fall and decrease as interest rates rise. A 100 basis point increase in market interest rates would decrease the fair value of our fixed-rate long-term debt at October 2, 2022 and December 31, 2021 by approximately $175 million and $319 million, respectively. However, since we currently have no plans to repurchase our outstanding fixed-rate instruments before their maturities, the impact of market interest rate fluctuations on our long-term debt does not affect our results of operations or financial position.

The potential decline in fair value of foreign currency forward exchange contracts resulting from a hypothetical near-term adverse change in market rates of 10% was $17.2 million as of October 2, 2022 and $24.8 million as of December 31, 2021, generally offset by a reduction in foreign exchange associated with our transactional activities.

Our open commodity derivative contracts had a notional value of 679.2 million as of October 2, 2022 and $313.2 million as of December 31, 2021. At the end of the third quarter of 2022, the potential change in fair value of commodity derivative instruments, assuming a 10% decrease in the underlying commodity price, would have increased our net unrealized losses by $68.8 million, generally offset by a reduction in the cost of the underlying commodity purchases.

Other than as described above, market risks have not changed significantly from those described in our 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We have established disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”)) designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our reports filed or submitted under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s rules and forms, and such information is accumulated and communicated to management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Management, with the participation of the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of the Company’s disclosure controls and procedures as of October 2, 2022. Based on this evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of October 2, 2022.

We rely extensively on information systems and technology to manage our business and summarize operating results. We are in the process of a multi-year implementation of a new global enterprise resource planning (“ERP”) system, which will replace our existing operating and financial systems. The ERP system is designed to accurately maintain the Company’s financial records, enhance operational functionality and provide timely information to the Company’s management team related to the operation of the business. The implementation is expected to occur in phases over the next several years. During the third quarter of 2022, we completed the implementation of our new ERP system for one operating segment which is included in our International segment. The portion of the transition to the new ERP system which we have completed to date did not result in significant changes in our internal control over financial reporting. However, as the next phases of the updated processes are rolled out in connection with the ERP implementation, we will give appropriate consideration to whether these process changes necessitate changes in the design of and testing for effectiveness of internal controls over financial reporting.

There have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting during the quarter ended October 2, 2022 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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PART II — OTHER INFORMATION

Item 1. Legal Proceedings.

Information on legal proceedings is included in Note 15 to the Unaudited Consolidated Financial Statements.

When evaluating an investment in our Common Stock, investors should consider carefully, among other things, the risk factors previously disclosed in Part I, Item 1A, “Risk Factors,” of our 2021 Annual Report on Form 10-K, Part II, Item 1A, "Risk Factors," of our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q for the quarterly periods ended April 3, 2022 and July 3, 2022, and the information contained in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and our other reports and registration statements filed with the SEC.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

There were no purchases of our Common Stock during the three months ended October 2, 2022.

In July 2018, our Board of Directors approved a $500 million share repurchase authorization. As of October 2, 2022, approximately $110 million remained available for repurchases of our Common Stock under this program. The share repurchase program does not have an expiration date. In May 2021, our Board of Directors approved an additional $500 million share repurchase authorization. This program is to commence after the existing 2018 authorization is completed and is to be utilized at management’s discretion.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities.

Not applicable.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures.

Not applicable.

Not applicable.

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The following exhibits are filed as part of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q:

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SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Company has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned thereunto duly authorized.

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