Hershey: Acquires barkThins Snacking Chocolate

Hershey / PA. (thc) The Hershey Company, a global leader in confection, announced that it has purchased Ripple Brand Collective LLC, a privately held company based in Congers, New York, that owns the barkThins snacking chocolate brand.

«This acquisition is a great addition to our Hershey chocolate portfolio and enables us to expand our mass premium offerings into this growing and on-trend category», said Michele G. Buck, President, North America, The Hershey Company. «Since its launch in 2013, barkThins has quickly become a favourite snack brand due to its commitment to using simple ingredients, fair trade cocoa, non-GMO certification, and no artificial flavours or preservatives. barkThins is a very attractive and uniquely crafted brand that essentially created a new form of chocolate snacking. Made with high-quality dark chocolate, nuts and other ingredients, barkThins addresses key consumer trends, such as premium, high quality ingredients and snacking. We look forward to building barkThins by leveraging Hershey’s scale at retail».

«We are proud of the rapid development of the brand since our launch in 2013 and look forward to the next phase of accelerated growth that Hershey can provide», said Scott Semel, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ripple Brand Collective LLC. «Our unique proposition, brand equity, and outstanding team give us confidence that there is tremendous upside for barkThins with a confectionery leader like Hershey».

The barkThins brand is largely sold in the United States in take-home resealable packages and is available in the club channel as well as select natural and conventional grocers. Annual net sales of the business in 2016 are expected to be in the 65 million USD to 75 million USD range.