Free Republic

HERSHEY, Pa. - Hershey Foods Corp. workers, residents and government officials rallied yesterday to protest the possible sale of the nation's largest chocolate-maker, saying it would devastate the company and the community. "We look at this ultimatum and say 'nuts,' " U.S. Rep. George Gekas (R., Pa.) of Dauphin County said at the lunchtime rally, which drew hundreds of people to Hershey's Chocolate Town Square. "I can't believe they're thinking of selling it," Sandy Farmer, a local real estate agent, said. The Hershey Trust Co., which controls 77 percent of Hershey Foods' voting shares, announced last week that it was...

July 25 — There may be a big deal stirring in candy land. The trust that controls Hershey Foods Co., an American icon that is the nation’s largest candy and chocolate maker, is exploring a sale of the company, it said in a press release Thursday. Sources familiar with the matter said such a deal could fetch more than $10 billion. For years, the storied company has been a bystander during a food-industry consolidation, widely regarded as untouchable because of the trust’s loyalty to its mission and its hometown of Hershey, Pa. But now tumult in the corporate world has...