Milton S. Hershey: Finding Success In The Chocolate Company

Milton S. Hershey failed three times before finding success in the candy business. He had refused to give up on his expedition to prosper in this particular market. Starting his failed businesses with a wide variety of candy, he then had success after making caramel a priority. That was until he discovered chocolate. The result was what you recognize as the Hershey Chocolate bar. The empire he built was based on one goal: to bring chocolate to everyone at an affordable price. Beginning his life in Derry Township, Pennsylvania, Milton Snavely Hershey was born on September 13, 1857. Hershey was not an only child, though. His parents, Henry Hershey and Veronica “Fanny” Snavely had another child, Serena Hershey, five years later. The family was
From his failures, he had learned one other thing other than a great recipe for caramel. He had also learned that selling caramels in big batches to restaurants and hotels could make twice the money in half the time. So, after borrowing money from a nearby bank, Milton started a caramel factory in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, calling his creations “Hershey’s Crystal A Cream Caramels”. Milton’s new company was what he had been waiting for: success! He sold in big batches to several companies and after one large sale, being sent all the way to Europe, Milton payed off his loan at the bank. But an interesting thing about Hershey was that he wasn’t just the boss, he worked with his employers making caramel. He wanted his caramel to be the highest quality they could make it. Business was booming and the only direction Hershey was going from here was up. About a year later, Hershey met Catherine “Kitty” Sweeney at a candy shop upstate in New York. He spent quite a lot of time with Kitty and visited her often and one year later they got married. Surprisingly though, Hershey did not introduce or even bring her home until after their wedding. The workers were surprised themselves. Sadly, Milton and Kitty later discovered that her medical problems kept them from having children. But they would find other ways to have
He had heard of Henry Ford doing this and found it efficient. Yet Hershey still kept experimenting until he found the right formula that could be shipped safely and could go unrefrigerated for days at a time. He was ready to bring the first real taste of chocolate to all of America. The first wrap of this sweet treat was a maroon wrapper that said “Hershey” in big Gold letters. The first cost was only five cents, affordable to almost all Americans. Years after starting his company Milton came up with one more product than would long surpass the fame of the previous chocolate bar: The Hershey Kiss. Though they weren't always named that. They used to be called “Sweethearts” but Hershey came up with the better name after he heard the little smacking sounds they made when they hit the conveyor belt. They wrapped every kiss individually by hand all the way until 1921. In fact, these became so famous that Hershey even modeled several of the town’s streetlights to have Kisses as the