Dive Brief:
- Hershey is taking an 80% stake in Shanghai Golden Monkey Food Co., a maker of snacks and candies in China. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- The move gives Hershey control of a company with about $225 million in annual revenue, plus five factories, 130 sales offices and 2,000 distributors in China.
- Hershey has said it plans to boost international sales to 25 percent of revenue from today's 10 percent by 2017.
Dive Insight:
Without knowing how much Hershey paid for the company, it's hard to gauge the wisdom of this move. Regardless, our initial impression is that this is a deal that makes tremendous sense for Hershey. Suddenly the company has a substantial production and distribution system with expertise in China's booming candy market. That's something most U.S. candy makers would love to have.