LESSEREVIL acquired by HERSHEY COMPANY

The Hershey Company signed a merger agreement on 31 March 2025 to acquire LesserEvil, the Danbury-based organic snack manufacturer, announced it on 3 April and completed the transaction on 19 November 2025, at an enterprise value of $500M–1.5bn, an EV/revenue multiple of 4x–10x on net sales of $100–200M. The purchase was funded with cash on hand and short-term borrowings, and completion was conditional on clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Founded in 2005, LesserEvil had concentrated solely on organic popcorn between 2014 and 2018 before extending its range into puffs, curls and cookies. It took a majority stake in the bar maker R.E.D.D. in 2022, then raised 19 million dollars in September 2023, a round in which Aria Growth Partners took a significant minority stake alongside additional investments from existing shareholders Touch Capital and Invest Eco. Those investors sold through the transaction, while chief executive Charles Coristine and his leadership team stayed with the company. The acquisition extended Hershey’s salty snacks portfolio, which already included SkinnyPop, Dot’s Homestyle Pretzels and Pirate’s Booty, into organic products and new formats. That portfolio had grown one and a half times faster in 2024 than over the preceding three years. It also brought Hershey manufacturing capacity of its own: unlike many snack brands, LesserEvil produces in its own plants rather than through co-packers, which shortens the time it takes to bring a new product to market and gave the group additional capacity for its other salty snack lines.