Hershey Foods Corporation is the number one candy maker in the United States. Milton Snavely Hershey opened the chocolate factory in 1905 in Hershey, Pennsylvania and his first product, the famous Hershey Kiss, was introduced in 1907. Today, Hershey's sweets are sold in more than two million retail outlets in North America alone. Hershey exports its products to more than ninety countries worldwide. Plants are located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Brazil. Hershey manufactures chocolate-based brands such as Hershey's Kisses, milk and dark chocolate bars, Kit Kat, Skor, Milk Duds, Mr. Goodbar, Reese's Pieces and peanut butter cups, baking chocolate and chocolate milk mix. In an effort to remain diverse, they also produce non-chocolate confections like Breath Savers, Bubble Yum, Good & Plenty, Jolly Ranchers, Carefree gum and Twizzlers.
             From the days of the first Hershey Kiss until his death in 1945, Milton Hershey experimented with many different sweets. At the same time, so was the competition, Forrest Marrs, maker of the famous M&M's among dozens of other candies. Therefore, the candy business has to be in a constant state of change to stay on top. While Hershey's is number one today, there have been bleak moments in history where they were not.
             During World Wars I and II, Hershey's was the chief candy maker for the U.S. military. They produced seventy percent of the world's chocolates, including the chocolate used in Mars' products. However change was inevitable and Mars eventually branched off into producing their own chocolate and developing marketing strategies. Although Hershey did not realize a decline in sales, Mars had managed to surpass them in the production of chocolate during the sixties and seventies. Hershey's sales suffered for two decades but a lucky break came to them with the making of the movie E.T. Originally, the candy of choice was going ...