What Will Happen to the Bean Counters When They

Move All The Beans Offshore?

Hershey Foods finally announced the expected yesterday, the plan to close their plant in Ontario early in 2008 and will make additional job cuts within 2 years. Since about 500 jobs will be lost in Canada, it is anticipated that most of the remaining 2500 job losses will be in the US, with a large percentage here in Hershey.

I wrote last week about this http://tinyurl.com/268vur  and then had a follow up on Monday http://tinyurl.com/22gvmv  .

The mood locally about these possibilities is quiet and even best described as somber. The Harrisburg Patriot-News had a large front page article about this possibility today

http://tinyurl.com/294q9m  and http://tinyurl.com/yr4ett and even a reader forum at

http://tinyurl.com/2565tp . The articles are available on line for 14 days.

These changes are all about profitability, dividends and increasing the value of the common stock, hence the "bean counter" reference.

As a couple of local people commented, the overall problem is that the folks making these decisions are not from Hershey (anymore) and have no buy in to the community. They certainly have no respect for the founder of the company who always made business decisions at least partially based on what was best for his workers.

The economic effect if they cut a large number of jobs locally will be felt in a wider area than just Hershey. More Hershey workers live in Lebanon County than in Dauphin County, so the effect economically will be greater in Palmyra, Annville and Lebanon. In fact, the few Hershey employees I personally know all live in Lebanon County. The ripple effect will also affect the local dairy industry, since the main ingredient in the Hershey products made locally is milk, not chocolate. There are some ancillary businesses set up locally to service the Hershey operations, such as trucking companies that will fail if Hershey moves out jobs and production.

The worst happenstance will be if they close the "old" plant on West Chocolate Avenue. This building can be best described as a local landmark. All summer long I see tourists out on the sidewalk taking photos of the building, the grounds and even the signs.

The people making these job cut decisions will be in other places doing other jobs in 5 or 10 years, but the effect on the town and its people will be long lasting.