I wrote quite a few blog posts last Winter and Spring about the Hershey Company's decision to cut jobs in the US and Canada in order to move them to Mexico. My articles mostly outlined my view that the company, in spite of the founder's desire to keep Hershey as a thriving community, was tearing apart the basic fabric of town and trampling on Mr. Hershey's Dream. And the object of my scorn was Richard Lenny (who I often refer to as Squiggy's partner in crime) who was the top manager (CEO) at Hershey.

Well, lo and behold, late Monday the Hershey Company announced that Mr. Lenny had decided to retire and before the ink was dry on the press release, announced that the board had appointed David J West to replace him. Mr. West is presently COO of the company.

For all of the years before 2001, every Hershey CEO had come from within the company. Richard Lenny was the first CEO that didn't live locally and the first from outside the company. Mr. West was also hired in 2001 and his background was with a different company.

I've also provided a link to the first story about these changes here. It's interesting to note that Wall Street didn't react favorably to this announcement as the stock actually dropped about 4% on Tuesday after the announcement.

The longer term effect here will be interesting. The job cutbacks are scheduled and will occur. The move of production to Mexico will occur. What remains of Mr Hershey's Dream after 2009 is still unknown