Hershey’s sweet days in China are coming to an end. The US candy brand has closed its store on Tmall and most of its chocolate at JD.com is out of stock. Hershey’s China office in Shanghai is empty.

Hershey’s market share halved in 2020. Hershey’s started asset settlement in November 2021 and the company has been sued by distributors. One of the company’s former partners in Tianjin said payments have often been delayed. 

In a teleconference in November 2020, HU Tingzhou, then GM, told employees that the company was changing, then promptly resigned. Staff were laid off and distributors' contracts terminated.