Hershey Acquires barkTHINS Snacking Chocolate

The Hershey Company has purchased Ripple Brand Collective, LLC, a privately held company based in Congers, N.Y., that owns the barkTHINS snacking chocolate brand.

“This acquisition is a great addition to our Hershey chocolate portfolio and enables us to expand our mass premium offerings into this growing and on-trend category,” says Michele G. Buck, president, North America at The Hershey Company. “Since its launch in 2013, barkTHINS has quickly become a favorite snack brand due to its commitment to using simple ingredients, fair trade cocoa, non-GMO certification, and no artificial flavors or preservatives. barkTHINS is a very attractive and uniquely crafted brand that essentially created a new form of chocolate snacking. Made with high-quality dark chocolate, nuts and other ingredients, barkTHINS addresses key consumer trends, such as premium, high quality ingredients and snacking. We look forward to building barkTHINS by leveraging Hershey’s scale at retail.”

The barkTHINS brand is largely sold in the United States in take-home resealable packages and is available in the club channel as well as select natural and conventional grocers. 

“We’re proud of the rapid development of the brand since our launch in 2013 and look forward to the next phase of accelerated growth that Hershey can provide,” says Scott Semel, founder and chief executive officer of Ripple Brand Collective, LLC. “Our unique proposition, brand equity, and outstanding team give us confidence that there is tremendous upside for barkTHINS with a confectionery leader like Hershey.”

Annual net sales of the business in 2016 are expected to be in the $65 million to $75 million range. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.