No they are separate companies and even sabotage one another at the merchandiser level, poaching employees and rushing into stores to kick the other out of retail space as early as July to prep for Halloween.

It’s the fault of companies like these that Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas “come too soon” in retail settings. Stores begrudgingly go along with it because putting that stuff out early does boost sales overall.

But 99% of retail managers hate it.

And does anyone have a source?

Hershey used to make the chocolate for M&Ms, so my mistake thinking they marketed the candy. But I feel like I'm having one of those Mandela Effects because I swear I recall going to Hershey Park in the 70s and seeing M&Ms being made in the factory tour. I guess it was their own version of M&Ms.

But for those 'sighing' about a source for the slavery claims, here is one...https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/feb/12/mars-nestle-and-hershey-to-face-landmark-child-slavery-lawsuit-in-us

The decoding symbols blog had a long article that included candy companies, and iirc, M&Ms were originally a joint collaboration between Mars and a (former?) Hershey exec whose last name also started with M. Later Mars bought out the other guy’s share and now Mars owns M&Ms outright, while Hershey competes by using Reece’s Pieces (which is another rabbit hole of Spielberg ET pedophilia)