History
The Hershey brothers, Jacob, Isaac, John, Paris, and Eli, founded Hershey Creamery Company in 1894, with the company originally operating out of the Hershey family's Lancaster County farmhouse. The ice cream was packed in metal-lined wooden containers that the Hershey brothers designed and built. The containers were loaded into trucks with ice packed around them to keep the ice cream fresh and cold. Salesmen traveled daily routes to deliver product to customers in the county and in surrounding areas.
In the 1920s, the company was merged with the Holder family's Bethlehem-based Meyer Dairy Company, retaining the Hershey name. In 1926, with demand for the ice cream exceeding the capacity of the farmhouse, the newly merged company constructed its first ice cream plant in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. During the Great Depression, the company became the first ice cream maker to offer its products in pre-packaged pints. It began creating new flavors of ice cream, such as Moose Tracks, which it then sold to other ice cream makers. Following World War II, the company continued to answer the call for greater convenience in consumer foods and expanded its offerings to include single-serve, easy to eat items such as popsicles and ice cream sandwiches. In the 1960s, the Holder family assumed full ownership of the company.
As the company grew, it split its production operations, with the Harrisburg location mixing the ice cream and a new facility in Lower Swatara Township used for the actual hardening and packaging of the product. While local orders continued to be delivered in small Hershey's Ice Cream refrigerated trucks, the company shifted to transporting most of its ice cream to refrigerated tractor trailer trucks, enabling it to stretch its market beyond the state of Pennsylvania. It expanded its distribution facilities, eventually occupying 22 co-owned distribution centers. This enabled the company to ship products out more quickly after orders are received and resulted in less travel time for the products, ensuring freshness and quality were maintained. In the summer months, the company greatly increased its workforce and leased additional cold-storage space to help meet the seasonal orders, as the orders were prepared by hand. In 1998, operations were modernized and automated when the company purchased 105 acres (0.42 km2) in nearby Middletown where it constructed a modern 1.3 million cubic foot warehouse, enabling it to boost its efficiency, reducing the need to increase its summer workforce, and reducing the frequent product loss caused by hand orders and inefficient packing systems. The modernization of its warehouse also improved inventory management, order accuracy, and has helped the company continue its growth.
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