Tuesday October 30, 2012

Additional Plant In China Likely For Hershey

Hershey, PA — The Hershey Co. will most likely locate its newest Asian manufacturing facility in China, according to John. P. Bilbrey, president and CEO.

During the a conference call discussing the company's third-quarter results, Bilbrey mentioned the company needed a larger manufacturing capacity to meet increasing demand in the Chinese and Asian market.

“We've made a long-term commitment to our Asia business, more importantly, China,” Bilbrey said, adding that the company's current facilities in the region are already fully utilized. “We continue to look at our Asia footprint for manufacturing. We were at a point where we need greater capacity to meet the needs of our domestic business. So where that plant has supplied product to some of the other Asian markets in addition to China, we'll probably think of that more as a China domestic plant.”

Bilbrey also announced plans to open a R&D center in Shanghai to assist in the development of products tailored to the Asian market.