Even though consumer demand is strong, the candy maker said it's dealing with 'capacity constraints.'
"[W]e have a strategy of prioritizing everyday on-shelf availability," Buck noted on the conference call."It was a tough decision to balance that with the seasons, but we thought that was really important."
Of course, people who want to give out Halloween treats this October will have other choices in the candy aisle, with rivals such as Mars and Ferraro likely stepping in to fill the sugary void. It's not only capacity constraint that is challenging Hershey, Buck added that supply-chain issues also remain a problem.
"I think generally we continue to see struggles across the supply chain," she said."[W]e're now starting to see bigger concerns relative to scarcity of ingredients needing to leverage different suppliers at higher cost and price points in order to secure production."