In 1916, Milton Hershey built a dedicated electric railway in Cuba to move sugar, a forgotten vertical integration play by the chocolate magnate.
Key Takeaways
The Hershey Electric Railway was purpose-built in 1916 as a logistics asset to keep Cuban sugar moving through the chocolate supply chain.
Milton Hershey committed capital to both Cuban sugar agriculture and electric rail infrastructure simultaneously, tying his empire to both.
Electric traction over steam was a deliberate 1916 engineering choice, meaningful for operational cost and terrain in a sugar-producing region.
The railway’s stated purpose was supply continuity, not passenger or public service, making it a captive industrial railroad from the start.
Vertical integration into raw-material logistics via private rail was a real competitive moat for industrial-era manufacturers dependent on commodity inputs.
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