Hershey closing Peppermint Patties plant in Pa.(Peppermint Patties Go South of the Border)

businessweek ^ | February 20, 2009,

[JoeProBono]

READING, Pa.A flag is flying at half-staff outside The Hershey Co. plant in Reading where production of York Peppermint Patties is ending. After 23 years in Reading, the chocolate maker is closing the plant Friday and moving production to a new factory it has built in Monterey, Mexico. It will mean the loss of 300 jobs in the southeastern Pennsylvania city. The plant also makes 5th Avenue and Zagnut candy bars and Jolly Rancher hard candies. The nation's largest candy manufacturer said two years ago the plant would close as part of a wider move by Hershey to eliminate 1,500 jobs and one-third of its existing production lines, shifting more manufacturing to contractors in the U.S.

[JoeProBono]

[Chet 99]

Milton Hershey is probably rolling over in his grave right about now.

[MyTwoCopperCoins]

York is probably the best candy that Hershey's has, in their line-up. A close second would be:

[ktscarlett66]

They’ve only been there since 1986? Where were they made before that?

[JoeProBono]

THE HERSHEY CHALLENGE While Jillian used actual candy, Rami dazzled the judges – including Zac Posen – with his outfit created out of Twizzler and Peppermint Patty wrappers, winning the challenge with his well-fitted look.

[shielagolden]

thanks to nafta

[Uncle Miltie]

This is impossible because we have protected our sugar industry. Therefore, jobs cannot move out of the country.

A bunch of Pro-Depression Anti-Freedom FReepers told me so.

[Salamander]

I’m sure it’s ‘just a coincidence’ that the Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate chips I used to buy made me sick after production of them went to Mexico.

I buy NO Hershey products now.

[anglian]

It was first produced in York, Pennsylvania by Henry C. Kessler at his York Cone Company in 1940, for sale in the Northeastern United States, Ohio, Indiana and Florida. [1] In 1972, the York Cone Company was acquired by Peter-Paul, which launched the York Peppermint Pattie nationally in 1975.

In 1978, Peter-Paul merge[Cadbury Schweppes]]. York passed to the Hershey Foods Corporation when it acquired the US operations of Cadbury Schweppes in 1988.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/York_Peppermint_Pattie

[JoeProBono]

[Salamander]

Probably Hershey, PA.
40 years ago, I went on the plant tour.

God only knows who or where their stuff is being made now so I don’t buy it.

[JoeProBono]

[macamadamia]

Damn...PPs ROCK! Going south of the border....not so much. Although Junior Mints are sort of the same...wonder where those are made...paging Cosmo Kramer...paging Cosmo Kramer...

[JoeProBono]

[Tex Pete]

More flight from union labor states.

[Uncle Miltie]

"thanks to nafta"

No, thanks to protectionism by the anti-Nafta sugar lobby:

"Because federal tariffs and subsidies push the price of U.S. sugar far above what it fetches on the world market, candy cane makers such as Spangler are opening factories overseas, where sugar can cost 6 cents a pound compared to 21 cents back home...."

http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/000980.html

[libertarian27]

how's that working out for you Reading, PA?

[Uncle Miltie]

For your consideration, and engagement on the upcoming flame war, see my post above.

[Uncle Miltie]

Sugar Policy Alliance seeks reform in 2007 Farm Bill

In search of sugar price support program reform

On April 23, sweetener users, public interest, consumer and taxpayer groups announced the formation of the Sugar Policy Alliance to seek reform of the sugar price support program in the 2007 farm bill.

Alliance members and other companies, public interest groups and associations including NCA are calling on Congress to make American sugar policy more market-oriented, less reliant on government regulation of supply and more compliant with the nation’s foreign trade obligations.

Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin, a member of the Senate Agriculture Subcommittee, appeared in Chicago alongside NCA to express his support for reform of the sugar program. “Illinois has lost thousands of good-paying jobs in the candy industry as companies have closed plants or moved them offshore in order to compete with imported candy that is made with much cheaper, world-priced sugar. Nationwide, segments of the food industry that use sugar have lost 70,000 jobs,” Durbin said. “As Congress works on this year’s farm bill, I intend to push hard for sugar policy reforms that are good for farmers, consumers, processors, and taxpayers,” he added.

Because the U.S. does not produce as much sugar as it consumes, users need ready access to reliable supplies of imported, as well as domestically produced, sugar. The current sugar policy is increasingly incompatible with the rapidly evolving global market.

Currently, the sugar program hurts American workers by driving good jobs overseas. It hurts American consumers by increasing the price of products made with sugar. And it hurts sugar producers by driving down long term demand for their product.

A healthy domestic sugar-producing and sugar-processing industry that can deliver an ample supply to refiners, industrial users, and consumers is important, but sugar reformers believe sugar policy should support producer incomes without distorting the market.

http://www.ecandy.com/Content.aspx?ContentID=6605

[BykrBayb]

I quit buying “The Great American Chocolate Bar” when I first read about them moving production to Mexico. It’s not a product I have to buy anyway, so it’s real easy to live without it.