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Retailers, consumers and prices
Check Out Line: Will Starbucks be Hershey’s sweetener?
Check out Hershey Co’s plan to team up with Starbucks as it tries to move past a drop in quarterly profit and a bleak near-term forecast. Sluggish sales and rising costs for milk and other ingredients are a bitter reality for Hershey, the maker of Hershey Kisses, Reese’s peanut butter cups and a host of other candies. Hershey’s stock melted, down 28 percent in the last year, as it lost market share to rival Mars Inc. Rivals have tempted consumers with new products, particularly in the premium chocolate segment.
Hershey said it will launch a new line of chocolates with coffee powerhouse Starbucks. It’s also rolling out a sweet new line called Hershey’s Bliss. Both are expected to come to market in March.
“Our primary goal in 2008 is to stabilize the U.S. business marketplace performance,” Chief Executive David West said in a statement. “New chocolate products within the premium and trade-up segments will help enable us to achieve this goal.”
Also in the basket:
Kimberly-Clark 4th-quarter net down
Tommy Hilfiger IPO shelved due to market volatility
Wal-Mart outlines vision as “company of the future”
Whole Foods Chain to Stop Use of Plastic Bags (New York Times)
A Growing Empire: L’Oreal Agrees to buy YSL Beaute for $1.68 bln (Women’s Wear Daily)
Wal-Mart Targest Pharmacy Benefits (WSJ)
(Photo Source: Reuters)
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When two companies team up in a strategic alliance to move their products, it can be beneficial for companies like Starbucks and Hersey. AT&T really benefited enormously from its alliance with Apple. Specifically, AT&T claimed a record 2.7 million new customers in the quarter. Apple reported in its January 22 press release that it sold 2,315,000 iPhones in the same quarter. Obviously, AT&T indirectly benefited from those sales, since approximately only 400,000 of its new subscribers did not come with new iPhones in their hands.