Hershey sees sweet spot amid slowdown

Hershey's chocolate products on sale at a supermarket in Suzhou, Jiangsu province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Hershey is interested in China for its long-term growth potential－it has a growing middle class, rising urbanization, and low per capita consumption for products like chocolate.

This creates a great long-term opportunity for our business. While 2015 is unfolding with challenges, China still remains our priority market for expansion and growth.

We continue to focus on building a strong foundation for our business.

We are executing our plan including the broader roll out of Brookside chocolates－a new product for Chinese consumers offering dark chocolate with exotic fruit juice flavor, as well as expanded distribution into smaller format stores and continued focus and acceleration of our e-commerce business.

Is Hershey concerned about the volatile swings of the renminbi?

Even with the Chinese currency movements, the key is to grow our business in this important market.

We're committed to the long-term and believe the balance and performance of our strong North America business and attractive growth opportunities in key international markets should enable us to deliver solid growth.

How does Hershey position itself compared with other international brands?

In China, we are best known for our iconic Hershey's and Hershey's Kisses brands. These chocolates offer consumers high quality, great taste, memorable packaging and the ability to share goodness with friends and family. The products have been tailored to meet the needs and tastes of the Chinese consumer as experienced by the product recipes and differentiated packaging.

The introduction of Brookside chocolates also meets China's growing consumer demand for high-quality products with extraordinary taste that features dark chocolate and exotic fruit ingredients. Consumers in China are embracing this new product offering.

What has been the most challenging part when Hershey acquired the Shanghai Golden Monkey in 2013 for about $584 million?

We are taking steps to build a solid foundation for future success.

For example, we have appointed new management with strong experience in China's consumer packaged-goods sector. We are also working to assess the Golden Monkey distribution network and recently hosted a conference with distributors to jointly discuss our business strategy and opportunities to work together going forward. We expect to close the acquisition by the end of the year.

What is your understanding about the consumption of chocolate in China?