From its humble roots in a North Dakota home kitchen in 2011, Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels is now on its way to become one of Hershey’s next $1 billion brands and the centerpiece of the sweets giant’s push into salty snacks.
For much of its 132-year history, Hershey has been synonymous with its portfolio of confections, including Reese’s, Almond Joy, Kisses and its iconic namesake chocolate bar. But during the last decade, the company has built a diverse portfolio of popcorn, puffs and pretzel brands to meet its goal of becoming a “snacking powerhouse.”
Few brands have been as instrumental to that strategy as Dot’s, which Hershey purchased, along with the pretzel’s co-manufacturer, for $1.2 billion in 2021.
Today, Dot’s is far and away the largest salty snacks brand for Hershey, with $626 million in sales during the last year, according to Circana data. It’s also a fast-growing player in the $2.7 billion pretzel space, with sales up 9.3% during the last 52 weeks versus 2.5% for the broader category.
Hershey isn’t content to stop there, envisioning a future for the brand that goes beyond pretzels.
“Dot’s is the centerpiece of Hershey’s ambition within salty snacks,” Amy Minderman, senior director of marketing for pretzels and snack mix at Hershey, said in an interview. “We don’t just see Dot’s as the best pretzel in the category. We think it’s a billion-dollar brand.”
With Dot’s firmly entrenched in pretzels with a 23% market share, the brand is now targeting other categories it can disrupt in the $44.5 billion salty snacks space by tapping into its signature bold flavor and premium quality.
In March, Hershey launched Dot’s Original Snack Mix, a competitor to Chex Mix, which has already amassed 6% market share. The success has given Hershey “confidence that the brand can stretch” even more, Minderman said.
Snack mixes have proven to be an ideal destination for Dot’s because the category is overdue for a refresh, maintains a position in larger social gatherings and the Dot’s pretzel is a key ingredient, the executive noted.
“We’ve been disciplined with our approach by protecting the core product, expanding distribution, increasing awareness and then using consumer insights at this point to say, ‘Where do we go next? Where can we credibly stretch the brand,’” Minderman said. “We are working on considering all growth levers for this brand right now.”
To further expedite growth, Hershey is aiming to boost Dot’s distribution, undertake a new marketing campaign in 2027 and promote the snack across different eating occasions, such as tailgating or watching sports.
The Pennsylvania-based company has employed that strategy with other acquisitions, including popcorn brand SkinnyPop, puffs maker Pirate’s Booty and most recently, healthy snacks offering LesserEvil.
Instead of entering the chips space where companies like PepsiCo dominate, Hershey has focused on permissible snacking categories such as popcorn and puffs, along with pretzels, that are scalable and ripe for innovation through bold and distinctive flavors.
Sales in Hershey’s salty snacks business totaled $1.3 billion in its fiscal 2025 year, up 12% from the prior year. Total sales at Hershey during the year were $11.7 billion.
Kirk Tanner, Hershey’s CEO, told analysts in September that innovation within its salty snack brands will enable the company to reach new consumers, participate in additional occasions and become more competitive.
“We see a clear line of sight to be the No. 2 salty player in the space,” Tanner said. “We want to own that permissible snacking occasion.”
