With the notice of a price increase from The Hershey Chocolate Company on July 15, 2014 we have since seen many other manufacturers follow with announced price increases.  It was only a matter of time before one of the "the big" guys would make this move and we could sense that once one major brand announced an increase that the rest of them would follow shortly thereafter. 

Some folks my call this "price fixing" or something planned together by all of the big makers.  Whether that holds any truth, we don't know but what we do know is in this current climate, manufacturers are experiencing pronounced higher cost in commodities and raw materials along with more regulations, higher wages, higher healthcare cost, and the list goes on and on.

Many large makers of confectionary products have all been waiting for this flood gate, so to speak, to open.  We are seeing increases on chocolate related confectionary products ranging from 8% to 12% across the board.  A big driver on the chocolate related increases specifically, is due to the higher cocoa costs manufacturers are paying or will be paying on future contracts. 

There is still some good new though.  These price increases won't take effect until September 2014 so we're suggesting customers to stock up prior to then to help cushion the blow.