Hershey raised prices 12% while volumes fell 8%. Why is Dave Hulays becoming CFO now? The Hershey Company has promoted longtime finance executive Dave Hulays to chief financial officer as higher pricing lifts revenue and profit but consumer volumes remain under pressure from inflation and elevated confectionery costs. September 3, 2026 The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) has appointed longtime insider Dave Hulays as chief financial officer, handing responsibility for one of America's largest confectionery balance sheets to an executive who has already worked across supply chain, mergers and acquisitions, treasury and transformation as the company navigates an unusually difficult combination of commodity inflation, consumer price sensitivity and weaker volumes. Hulays became senior vice president and chief financial officer on September 2, succeeding Steve Voskuil, who has moved into a strategic-projects role and will remain involved through early 2027 to support the leadership transition. Hulays joined Hershey in 2012 and has held increasingly broad finance positions across the United States and international businesses, global supply chain, corporate planning, tax, treasury, mergers and acquisitions and enterprise transformation. The succession comes after a second quarter in which Hershey's consolidated net sales increased 6.6% to $2.79 billion and reported net income jumped to $457.7 million from a depressed year-earlier comparison. Those headline numbers were strong, but the underlying consumer equation was less comfortable: Reuters reported that pricing increased approximately 12% while volumes declined around 8%, showing how aggressively Hershey has had to use price to offset cost pressure. Hulays therefore inherits a finance function at a moment when the central issue is not whether consumers still want Reese's, Hershey's and the company's snack brands. The harder question is how much additional price consumers will tolerate before inflation protection begins damaging unit demand more severely. Why did Hershey choose an internal finance executive rather than recruit an outside CFO? Discover more Business Operations Business Formation Hulays has spent 14 years inside Hershey and nearly three decades in finance when his earlier career at Procter & Gamble is included. Since joining Hershey as vice president of finance for Canada, he has progressively expanded his remit across commercial operations, growth strategy, financial planning, treasury and transformation, culminating in his role as senior vice president of finance before the CFO promotion. That history makes the appointment particularly relevant to Hershey's current challenges. Commodity inflation cannot be managed by finance alone because pricing decisions have consequences for sales volumes, retailer relationships, marketing budgets and supply-chain economics. An executive already familiar with all of those functions may be better positioned to balance them than an outsider requiring time to understand the company's operating model. Voskuil is also not leaving immediately. His move into strategic projects through early 2027 creates overlap with Hulays and reduces transition risk at a time when Hershey continues to manage significant inflation and transformation initiatives. The arrangement resembles a planned succession rather than a reaction to unexpected executive turnover. Business & Industrial The broader message is continuity. Hershey is choosing an executive deeply embedded in its existing strategy rather than bringing in a CFO to impose a fundamentally different capital-allocation philosophy. Business Finance Discover more Pharmaceuticals business news Business Finance Why are Hershey's rising sales hiding a much more difficult consumer equation? Second-quarter consolidated net sales reached $2.787 billion, up 6.6%, while organic constant-currency sales increased 3.6%. Reported net income increased 629% to $457.7 million, while adjusted diluted earnings per share increased 57% to $1.90 and exceeded market expectations. Those figures initially look like a straightforward earnings recovery. The volume and pricing mix shows why the new CFO's job is more complicated. Hershey implemented substantial price increases to offset elevated cocoa and other input costs, with Reuters reporting pricing of roughly 12% against an approximately 8% decline in volume. Consumers therefore paid materially more even as the amount of product sold moved lower, a classic sign of the tension consumer-goods companies face when cost inflation forces aggressive pricing. Discover more Business-News For a strong brand, this strategy can work for a considerable period because consumers continue buying despite higher shelf prices. The risk emerges when households begin switching pack sizes, buying less frequently, moving to competitors or treating confectionery as a discretionary purchase that can be delayed. Hershey's new CFO therefore needs to look beyond nominal sales growth. The more important measure is whether pricing eventually stabilises while volumes recover, allowing revenue growth to depend less heavily on asking customers to pay substantially more. How much have cocoa and supply-chain costs changed Hershey's financial priorities? Commodity costs have become one of the defining variables in Hershey's earnings cycle. The company's second-quarter cost of sales declined substantially year on year partly because of favourable commodity-derivative mark-to-market effects and transformation savings, but Hershey still recorded approximately $229 million of higher costs associated predominantly with unfavourable supply-chain costs and mix. Gross margin improved dramatically to 45.3% from 30.5% in the year-earlier quarter, helped by price realisation, savings initiatives and hedge-related effects. That improvement does not mean the commodity problem has vanished because derivatives can shift the timing of reported impacts while physical input costs ultimately work through inventories and future purchasing cycles. The finance function therefore has to manage several moving pieces simultaneously. Hershey must determine how much cocoa exposure to hedge, how quickly to adjust retail pricing, where productivity savings can absorb inflation and how much promotional support retailers need to preserve volumes. Those decisions can materially alter both near-term earnings and long-term brand health. Hulays' previous responsibility for global tax and treasury, supply-chain finance and enterprise transformation is especially relevant in that environment. The CFO role becomes partly an exercise in protecting margins from variables that Hershey cannot directly control while avoiding financial responses that weaken consumer demand. Why did Hershey lift guidance even though consumers are buying fewer units? Hershey's second-quarter performance was stronger than management and analysts had expected, allowing the company to increase the lower end of its full-year outlook. The company now expects 2026 net sales to grow approximately 4.5% to 5%, while adjusted diluted earnings per share are forecast between $8.36 and $8.52. Strong demand for brands including Reese's and Dot's Pretzels has helped offset pressure elsewhere, while North America Salty Snacks produced particularly strong second-quarter sales growth. Hershey has also been extracting savings through its broader transformation programme, creating an additional buffer against inflation. The concern is that pricing cannot indefinitely substitute for volume. If households remain value-conscious, additional price increases become progressively harder to execute without damaging consumption. The CFO therefore needs to help determine when protecting unit demand becomes more valuable than protecting every incremental point of gross margin. This is a familiar consumer-staples problem, but Hershey faces an unusually intense version because chocolate economics are especially sensitive to cocoa costs. Its brands provide significant pricing power, yet that pricing power is valuable only while consumers continue to regard the products as affordable enough to purchase regularly. What does Hershey stock performance say about investor sentiment toward the CFO transition? Hershey shares closed September 2 at approximately $177.43, up 0.8% during the session. The stock nevertheless remained around 26% below its 52-week high of $239.48 reached in March, demonstrating that stronger quarterly earnings have not eliminated investor concerns surrounding commodity inflation, consumer elasticity and the longer-term earnings trajectory. Stocks & Bonds The market's subdued response to the appointment itself is unsurprising. Hulays is a known internal executive, Voskuil is remaining for transition support and Hershey is not signalling a fundamental strategic break. Investors are likely to judge the succession through future gross margins, volume trends and cash generation rather than the appointment announcement. The share-price gap from the 52-week high gives Hulays a clear financial challenge. Hershey needs to demonstrate that the current improvement in earnings is sustainable once hedge movements, price increases and unusually volatile commodity inputs normalise. For a company famous for selling relatively inexpensive treats, the central strategic tension is almost elegantly simple. Hershey can protect margins by charging more, but every additional price increase tests how much consumers think a chocolate bar is worth. Its new CFO inherits the mathematics behind that decision.

The HERSHEY company names Dave Hulays Chief Financial Officer. Sep 02, 2026, 16:15 ET Hulays Succeeds Steve Voskuil, Who Will Support Strategic Priorities and the Leadership Transition Through Early 2027 HERSHEY, Pa., Sept. 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) today announced that Dave Hulays has been named Chief Financial Officer, effective September 2, 2026, succeeding Steve Voskuil. Hulays, who most recently served as Senior Vice President, Finance, brings nearly 30 years of financial leadership experience at Hershey and Procter & Gamble to the role. Since joining Hershey in 2012 as VP Finance, Canada, Hulays has taken on progressively broader financial leadership responsibilities across the company, including the U.S. and International businesses, Global Supply Chain, the Growth Office, M&A, Corporate FP&A and Finance Strategy, Global Tax & Treasury, and Enterprise Transformation. Before joining Hershey, he spent 15 years at Procter & Gamble (P&G) in roles spanning Commercial, Supply Chain, Strategy and FP&A, Global Business Development, and Global Business Services across P&G's North American and International businesses. Voskuil, who has led Hershey's finance organization for the past seven years, announced his intent to retire in early 2027. He will move into the role of SVP, Strategic Projects, focused on initiatives for the CEO and Board while ensuring a seamless transition with Hulays. "Dave is a proven, enterprise-minded finance leader who has helped shape nearly every corner of this business, from our commercial and supply chain organizations to our growth agenda," said Kirk Tanner, President and CEO, The Hershey Company. "He leads with rigor, accountability and courage. I'm confident he's the right person to lead our finance organization into its next chapter. I also want to thank Steve for his leadership over the past seven years. He has been an incredible partner to me and to this company, and his continued partnership will support some of our most important priorities as we move through this transition." "I'm proud and honored to serve as Hershey's next Chief Financial Officer," said Hulays. "Working alongside Steve over the years has been a privilege, and his mentorship has played an important role in preparing for this transition. Together, we've built a strong foundation, and I'm looking forward to driving our next generation of growth." Hulays holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Waterloo and a Master of Business Administration from York University's Schulich School of Business in Toronto, Canada. He and his wife, Angela, live in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with their two sons, Owen and Max. SOURCE The Hershey Company