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The Hershey Company has unveiled its 2026 seasonal Halloween portfolio, debuting more than 20 product innovations across its chocolate, sweets, and salty snack divisions.

The release expands the enterprise's presence beyond traditional chocolate treats to incorporate fruity, chewy, and savoury options. Supported by consumer purchasing data, the multi-category strategy is designed to capture early-season purchasing momentum alongside high-volume trick-or-treating occasions throughout the autumn trading window.

The expansion across non-chocolate and savoury categories reflects shifting consumer purchasing habits during the extended Q3 and Q4 holiday period.

According to consumer research cited in Hershey's Unwrapping Halloween report, purchase intent for non-chocolate options begins early in the season, with 72 per cent of parents indicating a likelihood to purchase gummy confectionery prior to September, rising to 74 per cent in October. Concurrently, 77 per cent of parents report purchasing chocolate ahead of September, increasing to 82 per cent closer to Halloween.

Katie DeCapria, Head of Hersheyween at The Hershey Company, stated that the product development strategy relies on tracking shopper behaviours and emerging trends throughout the year to align inventory formats with diverse consumer consumption occasions.

Fruity and Chewy Confectionery

To satisfy expanding consumer demand for fruity, sour, and textured confectionery, Hershey is debuting several new SKUs across its sweets portfolio:

🍬 Sweets Assortment Stand-Up Bag: A multi-brand variety pack featuring the seasonal debut of Sour Strips alongside Jolly Rancher Gummies Trickies Minis, Jolly Rancher Gummies Minis, and Twizzlers Twists in strawberry flavour.

🍏 Jolly Rancher Gummies Trickies Minis Snack Size: Chewy fruit-flavoured bites packaged in individual sachets, featuring mismatched colours and flavours across Green Apple, Blue Raspberry, Cherry, Grape, and Watermelon profiles.

🫐 Jolly Rancher Gummies Minis Snack Size: Poppable, fruit-shaped gummy treats in portion-controlled packs engineered for sharing occasions and candy bowl assortments.

🍋 Jolly Rancher Gummies Assortment: A mixed variety pack combining sour and sweet gummy options, including Jolly Rancher Sour Gummies Minis, Trickies Minis, and Sour Gummies Minis Awesome Reds.

Halloween Chocolate

Chocolate continues to anchor Hershey's seasonal strategy, led by its flagship brand franchises including Reese's, Kit Kat, and Hershey's.

The 2026 seasonal chocolate portfolio includes:

🧙 Kit Kat Count & Witch: Breakaway wafer-and-chocolate bars shaped into seasonal figures, available in single-serve, king-size, and six-pack sharing formats.

🦷 Hershey's Cookies 'N' Creme Fangs: Spooky fang-shaped white-crème and cookie-piece bars returning to the seasonal lineup for the first time since 2024.

⭐ Hershey Halloween All-Stars: An 18-count full-size variety carton incorporating seasonal shapes and flavours across Reese's Pumpkins, Kit Kat Count & Witch, Kit Kat Ghost Toast, and Jolly Rancher Gummies Trickies.

🎃 Reese's Pumpkins: The returning peanut butter and chocolate seasonal shape, alongside a new Amazon-exclusive Reese's Pumpkin Bowl containing 110 snack-sized units in a reusable plastic container.

Salty Snack Lineup

Addressing expanding alternative celebration occasions, such as trunk-or-treating, where 30 per cent of parents report participating with their families, Hershey is deploying an expanded lineup of savoury and better-for-you snacks:

🏴‍☠️ Pirate's Booty Trick-or-Treat: Aged white cheddar rice and corn puffs packaged in individual portion-controlled snack bags.

👻 Pirate's Booty Boos & Bites: Aged white cheddar puffs moulded into ghost and monster shapes for seasonal party formats.

🥨 Reese's Sweet & Salty: A cross-category multipack featuring Reese's Dipped Animal Crackers, Dipped Pretzels, and Peanut Butter Filled Pretzels.

🍿 SkinnyPop Halloween Packs: Individually portioned popcorn bags featuring seasonal outer packaging.

🍁 LesserEvil Pumpkin Spice Popcorn: Organic popcorn coated in cinnamon and warm autumn spices, capturing early seasonal demand, with 52% of adults actively seek autumn flavour profiles by late September.

🪐 LesserEvil Spooky Spaceballs and Popcorn: Light corn puffs and popcorn packaged in Halloween-themed single-serve pouches.

The complete 2026 Hershey Halloween portfolio has entered commercial distribution across mass, grocery, club, and e-commerce retail networks nationwide.