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November 1, 2008
Hershey Co. announced Friday that it will begin layoffs in December at its former Ludens plant in Reading.
The company confirmed that 252 workers would be laid off starting Dec. 19. Hershey also reported that number to the state Department of Labor and Industry.
Kirk Saville, spokesman for Hershey, said the company plans to close the plant sometime in the first quarter. He had no specifi c date.
The candy maker said in April 2007 that it would close the Eighth and Walnut streets facility to remain competitive and continue its global supply-chain transformation plan.
The announcement came on the heels of a decision to cut 900 of the 3,000 jobs at the company's operations in Hershey, known as Chocolate Town USA, and transfer them to a plant in Mexico.
The workers at the Reading plant make York Peppermint Patties and 5th Avenue bars. It is not clear where those products will be made.
The plant was once the site of a famed candymaking legacy that began with confectioner William H. Luden in 1879.
Hershey bought the 400,000-square-foot facility in 1986 from Food Industries of Philadelphia, which acquired it from Luden in 1927. Its purchase added Luden's cough drops and 5th Avenue bars to Hershey's popular line of candies.
In 2001, Hershey sold the cough-drop business to Pharmacia Corp., a division of Pfizer Inc.
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