The history of Milton Hershey and the Hershey company. Was written as the opening to a group project on Management of companies.

Did you ever wonder how the Hershey Company began? It all began on September 13, 1857 in Derry Church, Pennsylvania. He grew up on a small farm and was the only surviving child of his parents. The Hershey family frequently moved, which limited his education to the forth grade. Since Milton was not going to continue his education any further, he took on an apprenticeship with a Lancaster candy maker. This inspired him to continue a career in the candy making business

Milton Hershey's first three attempts at candy making businesses, in Philadelphia, Chicago and New York, all failed. At the 1983 World's Columbian Exposition Hershey discovered German chocolate making machinery, which he bought for his Lancaster plant. He began producing a variety of different chocolates, focusing mainly on caramel. In 1900 Hershey sold his Lancaster Caramel Co. for $1 million. He decided to move back to his hometown, Derry Church, where he would build a new factory.

English: Hershey's Milk Chocolate Drops

The Hershey's milk chocolate bar.

English: Milton S. Hershey

Derry Church was the perfect location for Hershey's new factory, with all the farms he could easily obtain the milk he would need to produce and perfect his milk chocolate. Milk Chocolate was not easy to come by in America. At the time it was a Swiss luxury product. Hershey's main goal was to make and sell milk chocolate to the American people. He then attempted to create his own milk chocolate formula. Using trial and error he succeeded in developing the perfect formula. Construction began in 1903 on what would be the world's largest chocolate manufacturing plant. It would be one of the first factories to use mass production techniques. Completed in 1905, Hershey's soon became a household name.

Milton Hershey did not stop there. His ambitions far exceeded a chocolate factory. He began to build a community around his...