Letters to Stockholders The Hershey Company Notice of 2011 Proxy Statement and Annual Meeting 2010 Annual Report and Proxy to Stockholders Statement March 15, 2011 To Our Stockholders: It is my pleasure to invite you to attend the 2011 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of The Hershey Company to be held at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday, April 28, 2011. Business scheduled to be considered at the meeting includes (1) the election of nine directors, (2) ratification of the appointment of KPMG LLP as the Company’s independent auditors for 2011, (3) a non-binding advisory vote on 2010 Annual approval of the Company’s executive compensation (say-on-pay), (4) a Report to non-binding advisory vote on the frequency of stockholder votes on executive compensation, and (5) approval of the Company’s amended and restated Stockholders Equity and Incentive Compensation Plan. Management will review the Company’s 2010 performance and will be available to respond to questions during the meeting. The meeting will be held at GIANT Center, 550 West Hersheypark Drive, Hershey, Pennsylvania. Directions to GIANT Center are included with these materials. The doors to GIANT Center will open at 8:00 a.m. Please note the only entrance to the meeting will be at the front of GIANT Center. Seating will be in the arena seats and will require use of the stadium steps. There will be designated seating for those using wheelchairs or requiring special assistance. If you plan to attend the meeting, you will need an ADMISSION TICKET and a government-issued PHOTO IDENTIFICATION to gain admission. Any of the following items will serve as your ADMISSION TICKET: • The Notice of Internet Availability of Proxy Materials you received by mail, directing you to the website where proxy materials could be accessed; • The top half of your Proxy Card, if you received your proxy materials in paper form; •AnAdmission Ticket supplied by our Investor Relations Department upon your request if your proxy materials were delivered by email; or •Aletter from your broker, bank or other holder of record, or your most recent account statement, indicating that you were the beneficial owner of Hershey stock as of the record date, if your shares are held in street name. Please remember that, if you are a street name holder and want to vote your shares at the meeting, you also will need to bring a legal proxy from your broker, bank or other holder of record. As in prior years, we highly recommend you do not carry items such as handbags and packages to the meeting as all such items will be inspected. Weapons and sharp objects (such as pocketknives and scissors), cell phones, pagers, cameras and recording devices will not be permitted inside the meeting room. Please note that we will not distribute voting ballots during the meeting. If you plan to vote at the meeting, pick up a ballot at any of the registration booths upon your arrival and place it in the ballot boxes located near the Security Booth area, or submit your ballot to a meeting usher at the time designated during the meeting. We also invite you to visit HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE WORLD visitors center on the day of the Annual Meeting. Please note that this year the visitors center will be open from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Once again, we are offering stockholders a special 25% discount on selected items. You will need to show your ADMISSION TICKET (in any of the forms described above) at HERSHEY’S CHOCOLATE WORLD to receive the special discount. The economy continues to create challenges for many in our communities. In recognition of this, The Hershey Company is again making a contribution to community agencies in lieu of providing gifts to those attending this meeting. This contribution is consistent with our commitment to our communities and with Milton Hershey’s legacy of helping those less fortunate. To assure proper representation of your shares at the meeting, we encourage you to submit your voting instructions to the Company in advance by Internet, phone or mail. Please refer to our proxy materials for more information on how to vote your shares. I look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Regards, James E. Nevels Chairman of the Board of Directors David J. West President & Chief Executive Officer March 15, 2011 Dear Stockholder, Hershey had an outstanding year in 2010, posting record net sales of $5.7 billion, an increase of 7% over 2009. Full-year 2010 adjusted earnings per share-diluted, which we define on page 20 of the Annual Report to Stockholders that accompanies this letter, were $2.55, up 17.5% over 2009. The results were driven by the investments we have made across our global business and by the commitment of Hershey’s 13,500 employees. Our industry-leading U.S. sales team continues to focus on flawless execution; our marketing organization is delivering world-class programming and ad copy; and our supply chain continues to lead the way in delivering margin improvements while meeting the needs of our customers around the world. As a result, we saw a strong increase in U.S. retail takeaway, and we gained market share for a second straight year. Hershey’s U.S. retail takeaway for the 12 weeks and 52 weeks ended January 1, 2011, in channels that account for over 80% of our U.S. retail business, was up 6.2% and 5.3%, respectively. In the channels measured by syndicated data, U.S. market share for the 12 weeks and 52 weeks ended January 1, 2011, increased 0.5 points and 0.3 points, respectively. I’m pleased with the progress we are making in Insights Driven Performance (IDP), one of our key strategic initiatives. IDP is an innovative effort that leverages Hershey’s confections knowledge of consumers and retailers to reinforce our category leadership and drive sales. Our initial IDP efforts have been focused on our sales through the drug store channel. As a result, candy/mint/ gum category growth for the drug store channel in the fourth quarter was 3.8%, with Hershey retail takeaway up 9.4% for a 1.2 point market share gain. In 2010, we took a significant step in ensuring the competitiveness of our Company with Project Next Century. This project involves capital expenditures of $270 million to $300 million for our U.S. supply chain, as we double the size of our West Hershey facility, creating one of the world’s largest, most advanced chocolate manufacturing facilities. Next Century will help ensure that we continue to make the world’s best chocolate, right here in Hershey, Pennsylvania, for years to come. As part of this project, we announced that we will be closing our manufacturing facility at 19 East Chocolate Avenue. This facility is a proud part of our heritage, but it simply could not be updated to meet the needs of a 21st century business. We’re very pleased that a significant number of our employees will make the transition to West Hershey. We continued to invest in brand building in 2010. Our advertising was up 62% for the year, with new campaigns for York Peppermint Patties, Hershey’s Syrup, Mounds, Almond Joy, Ice Breakers and PayDay brands as well as incremental advertising in key international markets. Our Company continues to be in a very strong financial position, generating about $900 million in operating cash flow during 2010. Hershey’s strong financial position allows us to continue with our disciplined global expansion including organic investments and the opportunity to explore other strategic opportunities. In 2010, we took a significant step to building a truly global company with strength beyond chocolate. The Board of Directors elected J.P. Bilbrey Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer. In his new role, J.P. is responsible for Hershey’s day-to-day operations and global commercial activities, leading the Company’s supply chain as well as realigned geographic regions, including the U.S.A., the Americas and Asia/Middle East. He also leads our two newly created global strategic business units (SBU). The Chocolate SBU and Sugar Confection SBU are responsible for building and leveraging Hershey’s global brands, creating confectionery marketplace innovation and disseminating best demonstrated practices around the world. J.P. will ensure that we continue our unrelenting focus on building on our competitive advantage in the U.S. while we simultaneously develop international markets. We will continue to make the investments that will enable us to build scale in key growth markets such as China and Mexico. This new structure will enable Hershey to build formulas for repeatable success in our global markets. Our strong 2010 results give us momentum as we start 2011, and we’ll build on our success throughout the year. In 2011, we will continue to invest in advertising in support of new product launches and core brands in both the U.S. and international markets. The rollout of Hershey’s Drops and Reese’s Minis will continue, and we’ll announce some exciting new products later in 2011. We’ll continue the disciplined roll-out and distribution of Hershey’s and Hershey’s Kisses brands in select key emerging markets where we are gaining consumer awareness, trial and more importantly, repeat purchases. Over the past three years, The Hershey Company has made tremendous progress. We have set our strategy, delivered on our commitments and won in the marketplace. Now, we have the opportunity to build on our success as we unwrap our global future.