Posted on 06/01/2002 4:25:00 PM PDT by FourPeas
Manufacturer says high cost of sugar in U.S. prompted exit
Several hundred workers at the Lifesavers candy plant in Holland, Michigan are losing their jobs, as the company moves production to Canada. NBC’s Kevin Tibbles reports.
HOLLAND, Mich., May 31 — Sometimes steps taken to protect American jobs, however well intentioned, may in fact have exactly the opposite result. Several hundred workers at a Michigan plant that makes Lifesavers candy are losing their jobs — because the company is moving production out of the United States. It is a very sour ending, for an all-American city.
THEY’RE CALLING it death by sugar. After 35 years, the American candy icon, Lifesavers, is closing its plant in Holland, Mich. Some 600 jobs will be gone by next year.
“That’s about a $35 million hit to the local economy,” says Mayor Al McGeehan.
Kraft Foods says the high cost of sugar in the United States has forced it to relocate its Lifesavers division to Canada, where sugar is nearly half the price.
And Lifesavers isn’t the first candy maker to head for the borders. Others like Chicago-based Broch’s, Bob’s Candies of Georgia and Jolly Rancher in Chicago are either closing or leaving the country. About 11,000 jobs will be lost in these three companies alone.
Americans consume more than seven billion pounds of candy each year, nearly 30 pounds per person. And candy, like lifesavers, is 98 percent sugar.
These days, even though you’re buying a brand of candy you probably grew up with, chances are it’s been made somewhere else.
“If you don’t move, you’re not going to stay in business here in the United States,” says Sal Ferrera, whose father started making candy in Chicago in 1908.
The family makes lemonheads, fireballs, gummy worms and others. Ferrera has opened two plants in Canada and one in Mexico. He plows through two million pounds of sugar a week, and saves as much as 15 cents on every pound by buying it on the world market.
“It’s really sad that now it’s not being made by Americans,” says Ferrera. “It’s being made over the borders and being brought back into this country.”
But America’s sugar producers say sugar prices don’t explain why the candy companies are leaving.
“These companies are too embarrassed to acknowledge the real reason that they may be leaving,” says Jack Roney of the American Sugar Alliance. “And that is to flee American workers, to flee the compulsion to have to pay workers a decent wage.”
But the bottom line is the American candy industry is in decay and candy-making towns like Holland are being left with nothing more than the hole in the middle.
What, they all want to work for FloSun? ;)
Regards, Ivan
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