Reese's Peanut Butter Cups

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are an American candy by The Hershey Company consisting of a peanut butter cup encased in chocolate. They were created on November 15, 1928, by H. B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton S. Hershey. Reese left his job with Hershey to start his own candy business. Reese's are the top-selling candy brand worldwide, with more than $2 billion in annual sales generated for The Hershey Company. History The H.B. Reese Candy Company was established in 1923 by H. B. Reese in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The official product name was "Penny Cups" because they could be purchased for one cent. Reese had originally worked at a Hershey dairy farm, and from the start, he used Hershey chocolate in his confections. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups were his most popular candy, leading Reese to eventually discontinue his other lines. Reese died in 1956, passing the company to his six sons, Robert, John, Ed, Ralph, Harry, and Charles Richard Reese. On July 2, 1963, the Reese brothers merged the H. B. Reese Candy Company with the Hershey Chocolate Corporation in a tax-free stock-for-stock merger. In 1969, only six years after the Reese/Hershey merger, Reese's Peanut Butter Cups became The Hershey Company's top seller. The H.B. Reese Candy Company is maintained as a subsidiary of Hershey because the Reese plant workforce is not unionized, unlike the main Hershey plant. In 2012, Reese's was the best-selling candy brand in the United States with sales of $2.603 billion, and was the fourth-best-selling candy brand globally with sales of $2.679 billion—only $76 million (2.8%) of its sales were from outside the United States market. Additionally, the H.B. Reese Candy Company manufactures the Kit Kat in the United States, which had 2012 U.S. sales of $948 million. As of October 2017 in the U.S. convenience store channel, Reese's was the largest confection brand by far: It was 62% larger than the next brand, with more households purchasing Reese's products than any other confection brand across the United States. Reese's includes the overall top-selling confection item—the Reese's Peanut Butter Cups King Size—as well as six of the top 20 chocolate/non-chocolate items. Additionally, the Reese's brand accounts for over 47% of all seasonal sales within the U.S. convenience store channel, including the top two items in the largest four commercial seasons: Valentine's, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas.