After a third failed business attempt in New York City, Hershey returned to Pennsylvania, where he founded the Lancaster Caramel Company in 1883.

[12] The town was an inexpensive place for the workers and their families to live, though the factory was built without windows, so that employees would not be distracted.

The introduction of machine wrapping in 1921 sped up the process and added a small paper ribbon to the top of the package, indicating that it was a genuine Hershey product.

[15] On July 2, 1963, the H. B. Reese Candy Company merged with the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in a tax-free stock-for-stock merger.

[19][20][21] In the late 1930s, Hershey confronted labor unrest as a Congress of Industrial Organizations-backed union attempted to organize the factory workers.

A failed sit-down strike in 1937 ended in violence; loyalist workers and local dairy farmers beat many of the strikers as they attempted to leave the plant.

From around 1938 to 1952, Milton Hershey tried to make toilet soap, which saw a big boom after the Great Depression as well as other hygiene-related items such as shampoo, toothpaste and perfume.

Hershey took this opportunity to try to open a store on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, which sold cocoa butter scented toilet soap.

[22] Shortly before World War II, Bruce Murrie, son of long-time Hershey's president William F.R.

[23] In 1969, Hershey received a license from UK-based Rowntree's to manufacture and market Kit Kat and Rolo in the United States.

[25] In 1988, Hershey's acquired the rights to manufacture and distribute many Cadbury-branded products in the United States (except gum and mints, which are part of Mondelēz International).

Former Pennsylvania Attorney General LeRoy S. Zimmerman became the new chairman of the reconstituted Milton Hershey School Trustees.

[32] In 2005, Krave Jerky was founded by Jon Sebastiani after he trained for a marathon and looked for a healthy source of energy.

[35] Hershey would later in 2020 sell Krave Jerky to Sonoma Brands, the food industry incubator founded by Sebastiani in 2016.

[36] In July 2005, Hershey acquired the Berkeley, California-based boutique chocolate-maker Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker.

[38] In September 2006, ABC News reported that several Hershey chocolate products were reformulated to replace cocoa butter with vegetable oil as an emulsifier.

According to the company, this change was made to reduce the costs of producing the products instead of raising their prices or decreasing the sizes.

[40][41] In December 2011, Hershey reached an agreement to acquire Brookside Foods Ltd., a privately held confectionery company based in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

[24] In 2017, Hershey acquired Amplify Snack Brands, the Austin, Texas-based manufacturer of SkinnyPop in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $1.6 billion.

In 2019, Hershey announced that they could not guarantee that their chocolate products were free from child slave labor, as they could trace only about 50% of their purchasing back to the farm level.

[51] In 2021, Hershey was named in a class action lawsuit filed by eight former child slaves from Mali who alleged that the company aided and abetted their enslavement on cocoa plantations in Ivory Coast.

The suit accused Hershey, Nestlé, Cargill, Mars, Incorporated, Olam International, Barry Callebaut, and Mondelez International of knowingly engaging in forced labor, and the plaintiffs sought damages for unjust enrichment, negligent supervision, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

[59] The school's initial purpose was to train young men in trades but eventually shifted to focus on preparation for college.

[63] In February and April 2007, Hershey's announced that the Smiths Falls[64][65] and Oakdale[66][67] plants would close in 2008, being replaced in part by a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico.

[70] On March 9, 2018, Hershey broke ground to expand its Kit Kat manufacturing facility in Hazle Township, Pennsylvania.