* March 2007 - HERSHEY'S Visitors Center in Smiths Falls, Ontario
* March 2007 - No more sugar coating the fate of Hershey
* March 2007 - Pet Food Poison Lawsuit Blames Excessive Amounts of Vitamin D
* March 2007 - Hershey to meet with town officials
* January 2007 - Smiths Falls salmonella melts profit at Hershey's
* November 2006 - Soy Lecithan not confirmed as salmonella source in Hershey recall: CFIA
* September 2002 - Judge halts Hershey sale; shares dive 4%
HERSHEY'S Visitors Center in Smiths Falls, Ontario
http://www.hersheys.com/discover/smithsfalls.asp
Canadians welcomed HERSHEY'S to Smiths Falls in 1963.
Ever since, they've been welcoming visitors to the
very first HERSHEY'S chocolate factory built outside
of Hershey, PA. Located along the beautiful
Rideau Canal midway between Toronto and Montreal,
Smiths Falls is a must stop for chocolate lovers.
Map:
http://www.town.smiths-falls.on.ca/graphics/EastOnt.jpg
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No more sugar coating the fate of Hershey
http://newsfeed.recorder.ca/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=21740
By NICK GARDINER
A provincial cabinet minister who spent two hours
speaking with Hershey company officials in Pennsylvania
last Friday says they were unwavering in their plans to
close the Smiths Falls plant as announced last month.
Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello
told The Recorder and Times Tuesday that the meeting
raised several options for the future of the local plant,
but none that include Hershey maintaining operations in Smiths Falls.
She said the company is positioning itself to become a
global operation rather than focusing almost exclusively
on the North American market.
Most positively, she said, company officials had their
interest piqued by the suggestion they at least maintain
the Smiths Falls Chocolate Shoppe.
That site is a tourism mecca that draws hundreds of thousands
of visitors to the town annually and provides Hershey with a
consistent source of revenue.
But Hershey has a huge technological centre in
Pennsylvania where all the company research is conducted,
she said, and there was no interest in moving the work north.
Published in Section A, page 1 in the Wednesday, March 21, 2007
edition of the Brockville Recorder & Times.
______________________________________________________________
Hershey to meet with town officials
http://newsfeed.recorder.ca/cgi-bin/LiveIQue.acgi$rec=21736
SMITHS FALLS -- Town officials here have won a chance
to make their case to save the Hershey plant directly
to the executives seeking to close it.
Smiths Falls Mayor Dennis Staples said Monday the chocolate
maker has agreed to send representatives to the town for a
meeting in the first week of April.
The exact date, location, and who will represent the
company have not been determined, Staples said in an interview Monday.
Neither, he added, is exactly what is to be discussed.
But the mayor's comments suggest town officials see the meeting
as more than a chance to hear first-hand an explanation of
last month's closure announcement.
A major sore spot for Staples has been the fact Hershey gave no
detailed reasons why the 44-year-old plant is to close by the
end of 2008, putting more than 500 people out of work.
"We want to see if there is still a prospect of the
Hershey plant remaining open in whole or in part,"
said Staples, when asked what he hopes to accomplish.
Although some production is moving to Mexico, Staples noted
company statements have indicated 80 per cent of Hershey's
product will continue to be made in Canada and the U.S.
after a three-year cost-cutting plan to shed some 1,500
jobs is finished.
"We're Canada, do we still fit into those plans?" asked Staples.
The mayor said he was not surprised Hershey agreed to sit down.
"Had they refused a meeting, I would have been tremendously
disappointed and upset," he said.
As to reversing what seems to be a settled decision for the company,
Staples said, "I'm optimistic, it's not over yet. ... I sense that it's an
opportunity."
Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville said in a message that
he had no details on who would attend the meeting on
behalf of the company, or what they were prepared to discuss.
The company, he said in a statement, is "committed to working
with government and community leaders to assist our employees
and the community with this transition."
As municipal leaders prepare to make their business case to
save the plant, Lanark-Carleton MPP Norm Sterling called on
the provincial government Monday to do its part to revive the
battered Smiths Falls economy.
In the first session of the legislature since the Hershey
announcement, Sterling urged Premier Dalton McGuinty to delay
the planned 2009 closure of the Rideau Regional Centre (RRC)
and to approve the long-awaited hospital redevelopment.
"With 1,500 residents facing layoffs, we not only need a
solid plan for Smiths Falls' future, we need action now,"
he said at Queen's Park.
Sterling told The Recorder and Times later the Liberal government
has responded well to the Hershey situation, but said the hospital
and RRC issues are areas the province can offer immediate help.
"I'm trying to keep this away from being a partisan issue,
but I'm also wanting to press the government to take some
immediate action," he said.
Responding to Sterling's question in the legislature Monday,
Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sandra Pupatello
said the RRC closure plan is "moving ahead."
However, she said the province is working with local politicians
around alternatives for the site and added "the Ontario Realty Corp.
is working diligently, in terms of releasing the site,
to see what can happen on that site in the future."
Pupatello also revealed she travelled to Pennsylvania last week
to meet company officials.
In a cryptic comment, she told the legislature, "I spent two hours
with the leadership at Hershey in Pennsylvania on Friday.
They made it very clear what their future is as a company."
Sterling, meanwhile, joined his federal colleague, Lanark-Carleton
MP Scott Reid, in welcoming Hershey's decision to meet municipal
representatives.
"A meeting is good. The people of Smiths Falls deserve a meeting," said Sterling.
Reid said from Ottawa he's not convinced Hershey executives
have fully thought through the closure and said bringing them
to Smiths Falls will allow them to better appreciate the operation.
He pointed out last fall's production shutdown and multimillion-dollar
cleanup in the wake of a salmonella contamination hurt the plant
when the decision to cut 1,500 jobs was announced.
"There is likely to have been no look into the individual
consideration and to me the proof of the pudding in that
is the fact that they have talked about shutting the
whole thing down including the Chocolate Shoppe," said Reid.
The MP said "actually seeing the customers flowing through"
the Chocolate Shoppe - which attracts more than 400,000 visitors
annually - could change some minds.
While Reid said production can be taken out of the plant,
he stressed, "It's so clear that you cannot move your
customer base down to Mexico. ... That's a very important part
of saving the Chocolate Shoppe."
___________________________________________________________
$50M lawsuit filed against pet food company
http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2007/03/20/pet-food-lawsuit.html
Another big pet-food manufacturer is accused of selling tainted food
in Canada that has allegedly killed some animals and made others sick,
CBC News has learned.
A $50-million class-action lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Toronto against
Royal Canin - a multibillion-dollar French company that supplies the
Canadian pet-food market.
The lawsuit seeks compensation for anyone who has purchased
Royal Canin dog or cat food since Aug. 1, 2004.
The lawsuit has yet to be certified. None of the claims have been proven in court.
News of the lawsuit follows a North America-wide recall issued Friday by
Ontario-based Menu Foods, and involving 91 different kinds of dog and cat
food, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration received complaints
the food was causing kidney failure in animals.
Toronto lawyer Joel Rochon told CBC News on Tuesday that
the class-action lawsuit is based on the case of Whitby, Ont.,
pet owner Janet Grixti, whose chocolate lab Mocha is alleged
to have suffered permanent kidney damage after eating Royal Canin
dog food.
"He is a very young dog, and now he will have this costly
condition for the rest of his life," Grixti said Tuesday in a release.
Company issued recall
The lawsuit alleges that certain types of Royal Canin cat and dog food
contain excessive amounts of Vitamin D, which cause severe illness or
death in pets.
"The allegation is that the problem persists even today," Rochon said.
The company recalled some of its products last summer and offered
to pay a portion of Grixti's $40,000 veterinarian bill, Rochon said,
but his client is not satisfied.
Rochon also said he is considering filing another lawsuit after getting
calls from angry pet owners who allege their animals got sick or died
after eating Menu Foods products.
"From what we can tell, there's a segment of the pet food supply
here in Canada that just doesn't have adequate quality assurance
associated with it and that's a big concern," he said.
Royal Canin wasn't available to comment on the lawsuit.
Menu Foods has also refused to return calls since allegations surfaced
Monday that its food had killed a cat in Canada.
___________________________________________________________
Smiths Falls salmonella melts profit at Hershey's
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=52c2fd90-4f09-4...-953f-b
Full production didn't resume until all equipment and
production lines were sanitized. Hershey's also said it
would buy the emulsifier from a different supplier.
_____________________________________________________
Soy Lecithan not confirmed as salmonella source in Hershey recall: CFIA
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2006/11/17/hershey-soy.html?ref=rss
Friday, November 17, 2006 |
Hershey's finding that a soy ingredient was responsible
for a salmonella scare that led to its recall of candy products
is still being investigated by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency,
a federal official says.
Garfield Balsom, a food and safety recall officer with CFIA,
said the soy ingredient is being considered as a possible source
of contamination, but the agency's assessment hasn't been completed.
Hershey spokeswoman Stephanie Moritz told CBC on Thursday
that the company found the source of the contamination was
soy lecithin.
"During one of our routine quality checks, the soy lecithin
tested positive for salmonella," she said.
Soy lecithin is an emulsifying agent used to help chocolate flow
during the manufacturing process.
But Balsom said CFIA's investigation hasn't been concluded.
"Because the bacteria was found does not necessarily mean
that it was the source," he said Thursday. "What contaminated what?
What came first, the chicken or the egg?"
Meanwhile, the Ontario Ministry of Health is investigating
three reports of illness possibly linked to the products
involved in the recall, Moritz said.
"Hershey is also following up on reports of illness associated
with the product codes announced in the recall, but has yet to
confirm these," she said.
Moritz also noted that most of the recalled products,
which did not include Halloween or Christmas candy,
have been returned to the company.
The company, which employs 500 workers in the eastern Ontario town,
shut down production and recalled 25 products after a routine plant inspection
detected salmonella on Nov. 9.
CIFA said the plant will remain closed until an
investigation has been completed.
The recalled products can be identified by date codes —
ranging from 6417 to 6455 — on the back of each package.
___________________________________________________
Judge halts Hershey sale; shares dive 4%
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/2002-09-04-hershey-block_x.htm
A Pennsylvania judge on Wednesday temporarily halted
any potential sale of Hershey Foods, sending shares
of the USA's No. 1 chocolate marketer into a mini-meltdown.
Hershey shares dropped 4% to $72.51 in heavy trading.
They are now well below the $85-a-share bid Hershey
is expected to fetch. The sell-off came after
Judge Warren Morgan of Pennsylvania's Dauphin County
Orphans' Court granted state Attorney General Mike Fisher's
request for a temporary restraining order to halt Hershey's sale.
Fisher says a sale would irreparably harm the community
and decimate the workforce.
The charitable Hershey Trust, which has a 31% stake
in Hershey Foods, wants the company sold to diversify
its holdings. About 55% of the trust's $5.9 billion
portfolio is composed of Hershey Foods shares.
Trust spokesman Rick Kelly says the trust will appeal
the ruling by the Orphans' Court, which has jurisdiction
over the trust.
Still, it's doubtful the sale will be stopped on
legal challenges, says Philadelphia attorney John Schmehl,
who filed a lengthy brief against the sale of the company.
"Legally, it's hard to say the trust doesn't have
the discretion to sell," he says.
Plans to sell the venerable, 108-year-old company have
caused widespread backlash from a coalition of Hershey
employees, former managers, community activists and
politicians. They contend that the Hershey sale won't
just cripple the local job market but would undermine
the community spirit inspired by Hershey founder
Milton Hershey. Moreover, critics say that the trust's
sole beneficiary — the Milton Hershey School for
underprivileged youths — has more than $600 million
in reserve funds — enough to cover school costs for
a half-decade.
Friday, Ric Fouad, a Chicago attorney who heads the
Hershey School alumni association, will ask Morgan
to allow the group to intervene on the students' behalf.
"We're looking at it on behalf of the students,"
he says. "Given how much money the trust has,
there's no prudent reason to sell."
If legal barriers against a Hershey Foods sale are
eventually removed, a Hershey bid could top $12
billion. Nestlé is believed to be a leading suitor.
Cadbury Schweppes has been in talks with Nestlé
over buying parts of Hershey to alleviate antitrust
issues. Hershey has a 43% share of the U.S. chocolate
market, vs. Nestlé's 12%. PepsiCo snack subsidiary
Frito-Lay has emerged as a suitor for Hershey's
gum and mint business, people familiar with the
situation say.
Hershey Foods declined comment, but management is
continuing the auction process on the trust's behalf.
Final bids are expected within four weeks.
______________________________________________________
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