Why Hershey Is Betting On Candy For Breakfast

Fancy a Kit Kat with your morning cup of joe? If your answer is "yes," according to one website, you're not alone. Food Dive has reported that Hershey is keenly aware there is an existing portion of its consumer base who enjoys eating the classic candy bar with their coffee. (Sounds good to us!) And, that's not the only interesting habit the candy giant has observed.

Hershey has also found that substituting snacks for meals has become a trend with consumers. (Who has time for a meal, anyway?) According to the Hershey website, the portion of consumers who replace a meal or two a day with a snack is as high as 41% (based on a 2018 report from Technomic, Inc). Hershey also found that one particular area of snacking accounting for a chunk of that increase is "impulse snacking," the kind of snacking that has us enjoying our purchases within an hour of walking out of the store with them, according to Food Dive. Here's the kicker: According to the site, impulse snacking is highest among consumers in the morning — useful information, indeed, for a candy company.

If the Kit Kat-and-coffee combo doesn't exactly match your idea of breakfast, Hershey has other items that might come a little closer. In 2020, the brand launched Reese's Snack Cakes, a treat created specifically to be relished in the morning. In the press release announcing the snack, Hershey mentioned that an online survey of U.S. adults found that 83% of participants said they had eaten a dessert before noon in the previous month (via AP News.) Mike Orr, Snacks brand manager, mentioned in the release that "We know that sometimes you just don't want to wait until lunch — that's how Reese's Snack Cakes were born!" It's good to be seen.

Apparently, Reese's Snack Cakes have been a success, so, naturally, Hershey added even more breakfast products to the lineup, including the Reese's snack bar, according to Food Dive. With peanut butter creme, peanuts, crisped brown rice, and milk chocolate (via Hershey Solutions), the Reese's snack bar sounds well-suited for someone who likes a sweet breakfast. As Dan Mohnshine, head of strategic growth platforms at Hershey, told Food Dive, the company is considering "how do we translate the indulgent credentials that our chocolate portfolio has to other categories that have a greater presence in the morning."

Whatever new breakfast product Hershey dreams up, our preference would be a December launch. After eating old Halloween candy for breakfast for a whole month, we're going to need a new morning fix!