Milton Hershey: From an illiterate, built a billion dollar confectionery empire

After giving up his position as a printing apprentice, this man started a business with three confectionery companies in a row, but all failed.

Surely many people know Hershey's chocolate products, but do not know who Milton Hershey was when he first started his candy manufacturing career. After giving up his position as a printing apprentice, this man started a business with three confectionery companies in a row, but all failed.

However, to build this billion-dollar empire, few people know how hard it was for founder Milton Hershey to achieve success. Even when he was rich, Milton himself did not have a son to continue his career.

An illiterate's dream

Milton Snavely Hershey was born in 1857 in Pennsylvania, USA. This is an area with many farms and most of the people around Milton are farmers, but the young Milton himself showed an aptitude for business from an early age.

Due to the poor family, from a young age Milton had to help the family and practice hard work and perseverance. However, because he did not have a permanent place to live and his father was often away on business, Milton did not have much education. He only finished grade 1 and then quit to work to help support his family.

At the age of 15, Milton fell in love with the confectionery industry when he apprenticed in his hometown. At first, the idea for her children to go to school to make candy came from Milton's mother because at that time, everyone needed a job to make a living. Fortunately, Milton quickly proved his talent when he learned all the candy recipes and had a passion for the craft.

The interesting thing is that while the US economy boomed with industrial development with many billionaires in mining, shipbuilding ..., Milton dreamed of getting rich from confectionery, which was a profession that he loved very much. dear.

In 1876, Milton decided to start a business with a $100 loan from his aunt to open a small candy shop in Philadelphia. This first project contained all of Milton's enthusiasm, so he worked day and night. Late at night, Milton would make candy and sell it in crowded places the next morning. During this period, confectionery cannot be kept for long because there are no preservatives and if sold too late, they will be stale or damaged.

But working hard is not enough in the startup village. Despite working 15-16 hours a day, Milton's confectionery brand is still average. In 1882, Milton's health deteriorated from overwork while his confectionery shop was in debt.

So Milton was forced to sell his brainchild to pay the debt. The meager money left was used to go to Denver to dig silver with his father, which was a fever of getting rich at that time.

Success from countless failures of madmen

After a period of silver mining, Milton still couldn't stop his passion for getting rich from confectionery. He felt that he should become a successful candy businessman rather than a mere silver digger.

With that determination, Milton applied for a job at a local candy store and learned how to preserve the finished product longer by mixing fresh cow's milk with caramel. Milton was immediately eager to try this newly learned recipe when he moved to Chicago and opened a new confectionery store. But he had to close again when at that time, people did not have enough to eat and confectionery was a luxury item.

Refusing to give up, Milton moved to New York and set up a confectionery store for the third time only to go bankrupt again.

This time Milton decided to go back to his hometown to seek help, but no one would lend him money because they all thought that it was difficult for an uneducated person without power to build a successful career. In the end, Milton decided to rely on the help of acquaintances to get a bank loan to move equipment from New York to build the 4th confectionery store.

So Landcaster Caramel was founded in 1886 as a confectionery. At this point Milton decided to change the recipe by adding fresh milk to the production process to create a creamy texture. The product was immediately accepted by the public.

Then a British businessman tasted Milton's candy and offered to import it in large quantities and sell it, and loan him another 250,000 USD to expand the business. Thanks to this order, Milton was able to pay off debt and develop production.

By the early 1890s, Milton's business was flourishing with more than 1,300 workers in two factories. But after coming to Switzerland to learn how to make milk chocolate, Milton became interested in this field and made a bold decision to sell Landcaster Caramel for $ 1 million to establish the Hershey Chocolate Company.

At this point, everyone thought Milton was crazy. Even his wife thinks that her husband needs to re-examine his mind when selling the property to pursue his dream. Remember that at that time, chocolate was an expensive luxury item as well as picky eaters, not as cheap and sweet as it is now.

Chocolate Empire

Despite the gossip and warnings from relatives, Milton continued to pursue his passion. During the 1900s, Milton continuously launched experimental lines of chocolate to perfect his own recipe.

The experience in making candy and the technique of using fresh milk during the previous years has helped Milton masterly create delicious cheap milk chocolate bars. He even bought a dairy farm near his hometown to have a stable supply.

In 1903, Milton even built the largest chocolate factory at that time with a series of the most modern technologies. When completed in 1905, Hershey's product was the first chocolate to be widely marketed in the United States.

At that time, milk chocolate was quite rare because it was a luxury item, so Milton's products attracted a lot of customers. Therefore, a series of new products launched by Hershey have achieved success. From a luxury item, Milton turned milk chocolate into a snack for everyone and they became a best seller.

The fact that Milton built his own farm with the factory reduced the price of chocolate bars. In addition, he also established an ecosystem around his farm with affordable housing for workers, schools, department stores, zoos, libraries, theaters...

In 1907, Milton launched the Hersheys Kisses line, which caused a nationwide earthquake. About 80 million candies are produced every day for both domestic and export markets. Hershey's sales reached a record level in the history of the confectionery industry, and the range of Milton products that followed was well received by the public.

Especially during the Great Depression of 1930, Hershey was one of the rare American firms that did not lay off workers, thereby touching many workers and expressing their desire to work for Milton all their lives.

During World War II, Milton came up with the idea of making small, nutritious candies to help people in need of food. This act was honored throughout the United States and even the military ordered Hershey to produce nutritional candy for the army. Between 1940-1945, Hershey produced more than 3 billion chocolate bars for the military. The factory itself has also received a medal for service to the country.

Thanks to his unique ideas and passion for confectionery, Milton has greatly expanded his Hershey empire. In 1939, Hershey's factory output was only about 100,000 bars/day, but by the end of World War II, this number had increased to 24 million bars/week.

Mr. Milton died in 1945 and, having no children, left the empire to close associates.

Today, Heyshey faces a lot of competition from the likes of Mars or Ferrero, but thanks to clever strategies, it still does well. Realizing that Americans often buy different brands of candy every time they go to the supermarket, Hershey has diversified the products.

The company also targets adult tastes because they are the customers who spend money to buy candy for children. About 55% of Hershey's candy sales come from people over the age of 18. The company also launched larger product lines to suit adults, or more expensive candies for high-end customers.

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