Reese’s grandson calls Hershey’s 2027 recipe change a stall amid family feud

The public feud began on Valentine's Day, when Reese posted an open letter on LinkedIn after opening a bag of Reese's Unwrapped Mini Hearts. He said the label read 'chocolate candy' and peanut butter crème instead of milk chocolate and peanut butter, and threw them out. 'Hershey's killing Hershey,' he told Fortune. The company later acknowledged it had moved to a cocoa butter equivalent coating on formats such as molded Valentine's and Easter shapes, Reese's Minis, Thins and Sticks, allowing them to be labelled 'chocolate candy' rather than milk chocolate. At its March investor day, Hershey said all Hershey's and Reese's offerings would return to classic recipes by 2027. CEO Kirk Tanner said the change affected less than 3% of Reese's products.

Reese's Peanut Butter Cups have been sold for nearly a century, invented by H.B. Reese, a former dairy farmer and shipping foreman for Milton Hershey. The brand became the company's top seller in 1969 and now brings in about $3 billion a year, roughly a quarter of Hershey's sales, according to a person familiar with its operations.

Brad Reese, 71 and living in a Florida retirement community, has spent months accusing the company of fraud. He says he feels 'total betrayal' and that the company is 'trading on my grandfather's legacy.' He called the 2027 commitment a 'brilliant publicity, public relations stunt,' insisting 'they could go back to the original recipe in three days.' Hershey rejected the criticism, saying manufacturing changes take time, involve extensive consumer testing, and that packaging changes alone take six to eight months. The company said the recipe adjustments were made before its current leadership took over and that people making allegations lack 'direct knowledge or experience.'

The dispute has split the family. Hilgers, whose mother was H.B. Reese's youngest daughter, told Fortune she and the cousins she is in touch with 'are all on the same page' and do not support Brad Reese's claims. 'Nothing stays the same forever,' she said, adding that the classic cups have not changed and that the company remains a good caretaker of the brand. She keeps Reese's at home for her grandson and her favourite is the Take5 bar, one of the products with the new coating. Brad Reese, she said, 'doesn't work for the company. He never did. He's not an expert in candy manufacturing.'

Candy prices have risen 44% over five years and Halloween sales fell 6.7% in the month ending Oct. 17, according to NielsenIQ data reported by the AP. Hershey’s third-quarter results showed it charged about 13% more for North American candy and sold about 11% less. The company attributed weaker volumes to shoppers pulling back after price increases, but Reese argues the share price decline ties to his campaign.