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Hershey closes Reading plant

The Hershey Co. closed its Reading plant yesterday, shutting down production lines that for 23 years have produced such storied sweets as York Peppermint Patties and 5th Avenue Bars.

The Hershey Co. closed its Reading plant yesterday, shutting down production lines that for 23 years have produced such storied sweets as York Peppermint Patties and 5th Avenue Bars.

The production lines at the plant are being moved to Monterrey, Mexico, and other facilities in the United States as part of a restructuring of Hershey's, the nation's largest candy manufacturer.

About 300 jobs are being lost at the Reading plant. A total of about 1,500 jobs are being eliminated companywide.

According to Dennis Bomberger, business manager of Chocolate Workers Local 464, workers received a severance package that included two weeks of pay for each year of service up to 65 weeks.

Along with the loss of jobs comes the closing of a small chapter of Pennsylvania's candied past.

York Peppermint Patties were first manufactured by the York Cone Co. of York in 1940. They stood apart from competitors in that they featured a soft, dark-chocolate shell around a soft peppermint center. Similar candies at the time featured hard shells.

Fifth Avenue Bars were created by William H. Luden, a Dutch immigrant who in 1879, at age 20, started a candy "factory" in the kitchen of his family's Reading home. He went on to develop a cough remedy, Luden's Menthol Cough Drops.