Contributors' opinions are their own.
The Hershey Foods Corp. was founded by the founder.
They should be given quality. The best kind of advertising is that.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when ruthless business people created empires of steel, oil and railroads on the backs of a hapless rural population, Hershey followed a different path to success. Hershey offered his employees dignity and prosperity, inspiring love and loyalty in his workers, and making himself wildly rich in contrast to other "robber-barons" who treated their workers badly.
Hershey's path to sweet success was fraught with obstacles that would crush lesser men. Through perseverance, ingenuity and his amazing ability to bounce back from failure, he built one of the great American fortunes from the ground up and brought joy to millions.
Hershey started making candy when he was 15 years old. Hershey gained a lot of the skills and tools he would later use to build his own empire under Royer's guidance.
Hershey opened his first candy shop in Philadelphia in 1876 with a small amount of money. He kept the business going for six years. During the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Hershey would make caramels and taffies at night and sell them from a pushcart to crowds. After a winter of illness and mounting debt, Hershey sold his business and went to Denver to join his father in the Colorado silver rush.
The Hershey found in Colorado wasn't from the ground but from a cow. Adding fresh milk to caramel greatly improved its quality and extended the shelf life of the candy, which was discovered by Hershey while working for a confectioner in Denver.
Hershey opened a candy store in Chicago. The venture fell through due to failure. Hershey opened a store in New York City after opening one in New Orleans. The company continued to lose money despite his best efforts. Hershey was bankrupt when a group of kids stole his delivery wagon.
Hershey came back to Lancaster to find that his family had given up on him and wouldn't lend him money to start a new business. An old friend and employee would soon save Hershey.
Hershey was offered a place to live and money to bring his equipment from New York by Henry Lebkicher, who worked for Hershey in Philadelphia. The Lancaster Caramel Co. would be established as a candy-maker by the pair's efforts.
Hershey created "Hershey's Crystal A" caramels after experimenting with fresh milk in the candy making process. An English importer placed a large candy order for Hershey after he was impressed with the quality and shipping stability of Hershey's new caramels.
In addition to the original Lancaster factory, the now incorporated Lancaster Caramel Co. had plants in Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Chicago, employing more than 1,300 workers. The persistence had paid off. This would be the start of things.
Hershey saw a demonstration of chocolate-rolling machinery from Germany during his visit to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Hershey said that chocolate is permanent and that caramels are a fad. I'll make chocolate.
The next year, using the same machinery he'd seen at the exposition, he started the Hershey Chocolate Co. and began producing more than 114 different types of chocolate candy. Milk chocolate was new to the United States and the Hershey Bar was an instant hit. Hershey sold the company for $1 million and focused on chocolate.
Hershey had been working on a plan for mass-produced milk chocolate for a long time. He could put that plan into action after the sale of the caramel company. The ideal town where the work force could live, play, work and prosper was the idea Hershey set out to create. Hershey chose his hometown of Dairy Church, Pennsylvania, because of its rich supply of clean water, proximity to some of the best dairy farms in the country, and plenty of land for expansion. The events that would turn Hershey's dream into a reality took place in 1903. The factory was modern in every way, with high-tech machinery that eliminated the cost and tedium of making and wrapping chocolate by hand, and made possible the mass production of high quality milk chocolate at affordable prices.
The community Hershey built for his employees was just as impressive as the one he built for himself. It had affordable housing with sewage and electricity, paved streets, schools, department stores, a trolley system, churches, a library, a hospital, an open-air theater and an amusement park. The company's sales rocketed from $600,000 in 1901 to $20 million in 1921 as the community and company prospered.
When the stock market crashed in 1929, Hershey refused to allow the depression to affect his community. Hershey embarked on an ambitious building plan in order to keep his workers employed. They built a new high school, a sports arena, and a community building. According to legend, Hershey was watching a steam shovel in action when the foreman exclaimed that it could do 40 workers. The foreman was told to get rid of the shovel.
Hershey's singular vision and amazing inventiveness helped the company and town survive the depression. During Word War II, Hershey oversaw the development of the Field Ration D bars, which were used by GIs in the war zones. If no other food was available, the chocolate bars packed 600 calories. The four Army/Navy " E for excellence " awards that Hershey received were among the proudest achievements of his life.
After retiring as chairman of the board at the age of 87, Hershey continued to run his chocolate empire. The 88th and final year of his life was spent experimenting with new confections.
In 1945, the chairman of the board of the National City Bank of New York declared that Hershey was a man who measured success not in dollars, but in terms of a good product to pass on to the public.
At one time, chocolate was considered a luxury because of its low cost. Before the early 1900s, all chocolate was handmade through a time consuming and costly process that made it very expensive to eat. Hershey wanted to change that. Hershey changed the chocolate industry like Henry Ford did the automobile industry. The first method for mass-produced chocolate at affordable prices was introduced by Hershey when he developed and used innovative machinery that eliminated the need to make and wrap chocolate by hand.
Hershey believed that an individual has a moral obligation to share their success with others. The Hershey Industrial School is one of the most prominent of his philanthropic contributions. Hershey and his wife, Catherine, were sad that they didn't have any children of their own, so they established the school to give orphan boys a chance at life. Hershey donated $60 million to the school in trust and 40 percent of his company's common stock to make sure its future. The school's charter mission was to train young men in useful trades and occupations, but over time its Vocational emphasis shifted to college preparation and business curriculum, and several of its graduates went on to become executives and officers of the Hershey Foods Corp.
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