The Hershey Trust, the charitable trust which controls US confectioner Hershey Co., has refused to be drawn on claims it met Cadbury Schweppes executives last month to discuss a possible merger.

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The trust, which controls around 80% of the voting shares in Hershey, is said to have held talks with global rival Cadbury to see if it could buy the UK-based group’s confectionery business.


According to the Wall Street Journal, the trust wanted to see if it could secure Cadbury’s business without diluting its ownership in Hershey. Tellingly, Rick Lenny, who last week announced he was quitting as Hershey CEO, was not invited to the talks, according to the WSJ.


Officials close to the trust stayed silent when contacted by just-food today (10 October) about the reports of the Cadbury meeting.


The trust had last night issued a statement saying that it wants Hershey to build on its US position “by aggressively pursuing strategies for domestic and international growth”.

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The trust insisted that there is no “inherent conflict” between wanting to retain control of Hershey and see it grow domestically and internationally.


“There are many paths to accelerating growth that do not involve the trust giving up voting control of the company,” Hershey Trust chairman LeRoy Zimmerman said.


The officials close to the trust refused to comment further. “The trust does not have any public comment beyond the statement,” one official told just-food.


Analysts have suggested that the trust’s hitherto restrictive views about Hershey combining with another company have hampered the US company’s progress.


Lenny’s departure also came amid speculation that he had grown frustrated with Hershey’s ownership structure.