Business 4 min read By Arthur Ellington
Brad Reese accuses Hershey of cheapening Reese's, family feud erupts
The grandson of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups inventor says Hershey's planned 2027 recipe reversal is a stall, as the family dispute over the candy's ingredients grows public.
The grandson of H.B. Reese, the inventor of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, has accused The Hershey Company of cheapening the candy his grandfather created, calling the company's planned 2027 recipe change a stall. The public dispute has also exposed a rift within the Reese family, with a cousin asking him to stop.
Brad Reese, 71, who lives in a retirement community in West Palm Beach, Florida, has spent eight months challenging the company's changes to the product. He told Fortune that the candy is no longer the original, saying, « Hershey's killing Hershey. » He added: « This is not the Hershey company. It's not the H.B. Reese candy. It's not my company. My grandfather founded it. It is a total imitation. It's a fraud. »
The cups are still made in Hershey, Pennsylvania, where his cousin Becky Hilgers speaks for other family members. Hilgers said she was unsure what motivates him, adding that « he periodically does this. » Hershey has conceded that it changed the coating on some Reese's products and says it will change them back in 2027. It notes that those changes came before its current leadership took over. The company says Reese, who has never worked for Hershey, does not understand how a global candy business operates.
The stakes are considerable. Reese's is Hershey's top-selling brand and has held that position since 1969. According to a person familiar with Hershey's operations, the brand brings in about $3 billion a year, roughly a quarter of the company's sales. Hershey does not break out sales by brand. The company pointed to its third-quarter earnings, released on a Thursday, as evidence of how strongly consumers still favour Reese's.
The family's connection to the business dates to 1963, when H.B. Reese's six sons merged his company into Hershey. According to Hershey's 1963 annual report, the company exchanged 666,316 of its shares for the Reese company, a deal worth about $23 million at the time. Hilgers said some relatives kept their shares while others did not, and she declined to say more, adding: « We were all fortunate and blessed to share in the success of my grandfather. » Brad Reese was seven when the company was sold, and he declined to say whether he still holds Hershey stock.
The current row began on February 14, when Reese opened a bag of Reese's Unwrapped Mini Hearts, threw them out, and published an open letter on LinkedIn. He pointed out that the label listed only « chocolate candy » and peanut butter crème, rather than milk chocolate and peanut butter. He asked how Hershey could keep positioning Reese's as a symbol of trust and quality while replacing the ingredients that had built that trust.
His post found a receptive audience. Consumers on X and Reddit described the candy as tasting waxy, chemical or simply worse than before, and some said they had switched to other brands. When Hershey later announced it would revert the coating, the comments spread further. Hershey's first responses were brief: in February, the company acknowledged recipe adjustments made to create new shapes, sizes and innovations, while maintaining that the changes had been intentional and that the brand remained central to its business.
For Hershey, the episode highlights the commercial weight of a single product line and the difficulty of managing a legacy brand whose history is tied to one family. For the Reese family, it has turned a private inheritance into a public argument. Whether the planned 2027 change will settle the dispute, or prolong it, remains to be seen.
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