Hershey looks to cut jobs as it projects a dour 2024

Hershey has today disclosed it was cutting jobs and would incur up to $60m in costs, after the chocolate maker projected its full-year sales and profit below estimates.

The maker of Hershey’s Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups did not give details about the number of jobs it was cutting.

The company said it was introducing a new multi-year productivity initiative to improve supply chain and manufacturing-related spending, optimize selling and general and administrative expenses, to generate long-term savings.

Hershey estimates that the initiative will result in total pre-tax costs of $200-250m from inception up to 2026.

Despite taking several rounds of price hikes over the past two years in a bid to counter higher cocoa, sugar and labor costs, Hershey has slackened to protect its margins from higher input costs and a stronger US dollar.

The company expects to see a slowdown in demand for its chocolates and salty snacks, as cost-conscious customers cut back spending on non-essential goods amid sticky inflation.

Its organic sales volumes fell 6.6% in the fourth quarter.

Rival and Cadbury parent Mondelez International also saw its volumes take a hit in the fourth quarter as price hikes deterred customers from spending on its products, especially in the North America segment.

Hershey said the annual net sales are expected to increase between 2% and 3% year-on-year, compared with analysts’ estimates of growth of 3.4% to $11.61 billion, as per LSEG data.

The chocolatier sees the growth of annual adjusted profit per share to be flat, compared with a year earlier. Analysts were expecting adjusted earnings growth of 3.3% to $9.82 per share.

The company’s net sales came in at $2.66 billion in the fourth quarter, missing analysts’ expectations of $2.71 billion.

However, excluding items, Hershey earned $2.02 per share, above estimates of $1.95 per share.