Hickory Farms CEO: Online Sales More Than Making Up for Stable Mall Traffic

Hickory Farms is seeing more of its holiday sales shift online as mall traffic remains level with last year, said the company's CEO Mark Rodriguez. Rodriguez added that sales growth is also in the high double digits at retail partners like Walmart, far outpacing the sales growth at the company's mall-based kiosks. He said confident consumers are spending more per purchase this holiday season across all 3 channels. Rodriguez said input prices are up around 10% due to higher beef, sugar, milk and cocoa costs, yet the company has only raised prices to the consumer in the low single digits due to increased efficiency.