OAKDALE, CA. - Workers at a chocolate factory slated to close next year prepared for the first round of layoffs as The Hershey Co. sought a buyer for its massive industrial property.
The 575-employee plant will close in January as part of a companywide restructuring plan, officials with the candy company said.
Ninety-nine employees who work on the Hershey's Kisses and Kisses With Almonds production lines were scheduled to work their last shifts on Friday. Another production line was expected to shut down in the fall.
The real estate firm CB Richard Ellis is under contract to sell the chocolate plant, which sits on an 85-acre property worth $18.5 million, company officials said.
The Oakdale plant has been a major employer in Stanislaus County since it opened in 1965, and currently benefits from a deal in which the city of Modesto treats 100 percent of its raw wastewater.
"There is a lot of value in the land that goes with that property," developer Rich Murdoch said. "You could build a whole industrial park out of that property."
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