In the United States, Hershey rules chocolate sales, thanks to their H.B. Reese division. There are several products that many people associate with Hershey’s, but are technically owned by other companies. Chocolate is the key. Well, that and… licensing contracts.

KitKat

For as long as most of us can remember, KitKat has been manufactured by a company from Pennsylvania. If you’re not an American, you know KitKat as a distinctly British confection.

The chocolate wafer candy was developed by Rowntree in York, England, circa 1935. The company itself has been around since 1862, making it older than Hershey’s by decades. The American chocolate giant purchased the rights to manufacture KitKat in the United States in 1970. Rowntree was bought out by Nestlé from Switzerland in 1988, but Hershey’s will maintain control of KitKat on this side of the pond unless the company is sold.

Rolo

Another candy that is currently under the global umbrella of Nestlé, via Rowntree, is Rolo. The mix of chocolate and caramel has been around in England since 1937. Rights for manufacture in America were purchased by the New England Confectionary Company in 1956, then transferred to The Hershey Company in 1969.

Rolo was included in the Nestlé purchase of Rowntree in 1988, but like KitKat, U.S. production rights were retained by Hershey to this day.

Cadbury

It seems Hershey’s has a thing for British candy companies. As far as this list is concerned, Cadbury’s is the grand-daddy of them all. It was founded in Birmingham, England, in 1824. Merged with J.S. Fry & Son in 1919, and later Schweppes in 1969, Cadbury was eventually purchased by Kraft. The confectionary division of Kraft later became Mondelez International, the owners of Cadbury today.

As with KitKat and Rolo, Hershey’s in the sole manufacturer of Cadbury candy products in the United States. Mondelez has control everywhere else.

Milk Duds

Milk Duds were first produced by a company in Chicago in 1928. Candy sure is old. Bought and sold several times, ownership eventually went to Hershey’s in 1996.

While Hershey’s wholly owns the company behind Milk Duds, the intellectual property is retained by Iconic Interests, LLC. They’re all still manufactured only by Hershey, however.

M&M’s

This entry is a bonus. Some people might want to start yelling at me that M&M’s has always been a Mars product. They may also be quick to point out that the name stands for “Mars and Murrie”, and that their [insert relative here] ate M&M’s in the military during WWII. All these things are correct of course, but M&M’s owes more to Hershey’s than most people realize.

Murrie was the president of Hershey Chocolate, and the second “M” was named for his son. The elder Murrie also had a 20% stake in the Mars product. Why would Mars be kissing up to the president of their biggest competitor? Well, this was 1941, so WWII was going on.

Chocolate was being rationed because of the war, and Hershey was in control of most of it. Since Mars needed chocolate to make M&M’s… there you go.