{"id":1773255,"date":"2022-12-13T06:04:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T11:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1773255"},"modified":"2022-12-13T07:48:38","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T12:48:38","slug":"hershey-builds-another-huge-pennsylvania-chocolate-facility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/hershey-builds-another-huge-pennsylvania-chocolate-facility\/","title":{"rendered":"Hershey Builds Another Huge Pennsylvania Chocolate Facility"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhershey-builds-another-huge-pennsylvania-chocolate-facility%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1773255&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The Hershey Company is building a 250,000-square-foot chocolate facility in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to expand production capabilities for some of its candy brands, including Reese\u2019s, Kit Kat, and Hershey\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>The facility will be located on a 55-acre site near the company\u2019s Reese\u2019s plant, the company announced. The town of Hershey, which has streetlights shaped like Chocolate Kisses, already has corporate offices and two other Hershey <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-manufacturing\">manufacturing<\/a> plants.<\/p>\n<p>The expansion is part of a $1 billion investment in the company\u2019s supply chain network. Along with the facility, Hershey will build 13 new production lines and upgrade 11 existing lines in other North American facilities.<\/p>\n<p>The company has two other Pennsylvania locations\u2014Lancaster, where it makes Twizzlers Candy; and Hazleton, where it produces Cadbury, Caramello, and Kit Kat products. Elsewhere in the United States, there\u2019s Robinson, Illinois, home of the Heath bar; Stuarts Draft, Virginia, its second-largest U.S. plant which mostly makes products with peanuts; and Memphis, Tennessee, the home of Ice Breakers, where it also makes gum, mints, and licorice.<\/p>\n<p>A company financial report noted a nearly 15 percent sales increase in Hershey\u2019s gum products, attributing it to less mask-wearing.<\/p>\n<p>Internationally, Hershey has facilities in Brazil, Canada, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, and United Arab Emirates. It has approximately 19,000 employees around the world.<\/p>\n<p>As the company grows in the United States, it is streamlining operations internationally.<\/p>\n<p>In the fourth quarter of 2020, Hershey continued an \u201cInternational Optimization Program,\u201d according to its most recent financial filings. That effort started in 2018\u201319, a company spokesman told The Epoch Times. At that time Hershey\u00a0eliminated manufacturing in China, but it still sells products there.<\/p>\n<p>The company has continued to simplify and streamline some international markets and that has\u00a0included workforce reductions of approximately 350 positions outside of the United States.<\/p>\n<p>It is premature to say how many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-jobs\">jobs<\/a> will be created by its new hometown facility in Pennsylvania, but the project will grow and add jobs incrementally, a company spokesman told\u00a0The Epoch Times in an email, adding that no decisions have been made on timing for filling positions, and internal Hershey employees will be eligible to apply. The facility is not expected to be operational until sometime in 2024.<\/p>\n<h3>Bilingual Manufacturing<\/h3>\n<p>Last week, Hershey announced that its Hazleton location is its first bilingual manufacturing facility, with Spanish and English-speaking employees working together.<\/p>\n<p>Although it was only recently publicly announced in a press release, the \u201cSay Hola\u201d initiative has been in place for almost a year. The company provides training in English and Spanish. All signs, labels, and forms are in both languages, and the company ensures bilingual employees always have resources for communication on the manufacturing floor.<\/p>\n<p>In the past 20 years, Hazleton\u2019s Hispanic population has grown from five percent to more than 60 percent of the total population, the company said in a statement. The initiative helps attract workers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBy launching \u2018Say Hola\u2019 and opening its doors to the changing Hazleton community, Hershey is seeing an increase in employee retention and highly experienced individuals applying for positions,\u201d the statement said. \u201cIn fact, more than 90 percent of the facility\u2019s recruitment classes now have the desired manufacturing experience versus 50 percent of recruitment classes prior to program launch. The community\u2019s enthusiasm about the transformation to a bilingual plant and word-of-mouth awareness has also reduced recruitment costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe \u2018Say Hola\u2019 initiative showcases Hershey\u2019s commitment to our people and the communities in which we live and work\u2014both on a local and global scale,\u201d Alicia Petross, chief diversity officer said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c\u2018Say Hola\u2019 has accelerated the diversity of our workforce\u2014a key element of our [Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion] roadmap\u2014and provided upskilling, improved recruiting and retention, and most importantly, the program fosters a workplace that looks more like the communities our colleagues live in.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-beth-brelje\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/BethBrelje.jpg\" alt=\"Beth Brelje\"   style=\"display:none\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"bio\">Beth Brelje is a national, investigative journalist covering politics, wrongdoing, and the stories of everyday people facing extraordinary circumstances. Send her your story ideas: <a class=\"linkified\" href=\"mailto:Beth.brelje@epochtimes.us\">Beth.brelje@epochtimes.us<\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Hershey Company is building a 250,000-square-foot chocolate facility in Hershey, Pennsylvania, to expand production capabilities for some of its candy brands, including Reese\u2019s, Kit Kat, and Hershey\u2019s.The facility will<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1704371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[5458,8386,8387,3621,8385,4540,5836,3819],"class_list":["post-1773255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report","tag-bongino","tag-builds","tag-chocolate","tag-facility","tag-hershey","tag-huge","tag-pennsylvania","tag-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1773255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1773255\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1704371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1773255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1773255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1773255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}