Chocolate Prices Headed Up
THUNDER BAY – LIVING – Do you like chocolate? If you do you’ll have to dig deeper in your pocket to buy your favourite chocolate bars.
Mars Chocolate North America, who make M&M’s, Snickers Twix, Malteser’s, and Three Musketeer’s , report on Wednesday that it will raise its prices by 7 per cent to offset rising costs.
The price hike by Mars, which did not provide an effective date, follows Hershey Co., the No. 1 candy maker in the United States, which on July 15 raised its chocolate prices about 8 per cent due to soaring commodity costs.
A weighted average price increase of approximately 8 percent across the company’s instant consumable, multi-pack, packaged candy and grocery lines is effective today.
Thunder Bay Students Will Be Impacted
At the corporate level, the price increase might sound small. But for children, students and the rest of us, who love our chocolate, any price increase hurts.
“These changes will help offset part of the significant increases in Hershey’s input costs, including raw materials, packaging, fuel, utilities and transportation, which the company expects to incur in the future,” according to Hershey.
“Over the last year key input costs have been volatile and remain at levels that are above historical averages,” said Michele G. Buck, President, North America, The Hershey Company.
“Commodity spot prices for ingredients such as cocoa, dairy and nuts have increased meaningfully since the beginning of the year. Given these trends, we expect significant commodity cost increases in 2015. We are a gross margin focused company and remain committed to our consumer-centric business model of bringing insights to retailers that will enable us to grow our business and the category. During the transition period we will support our brands with higher levels of investment, including merchandising, programming, advertising and innovation, that will benefit Hershey and the category,” Buck concluded.
Story by Lucretia Chicago and Skyler Patayash with video by Bradon Campeau
