Governor Corbett Speaks During West Hershey Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

HERSHEY, Pa., Sept. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Governor Tom Corbett today discussed the importance of supporting private, job-creating businesses while speaking at the dedication ceremony for The Hershey Company's new West Hershey manufacturing facility.

Corbett credited the West Hershey expansion to business and government working together in the best interest of Pennsylvanians.

"Milton Hershey believed in automation, technology and doing things better, faster and for more people," Corbett said. "He created the five-cent chocolate bar and from that first nickel, grew a $6 billion company. About a century later his vision for a Pennsylvania company leading the way in production and quality still remains."

The new West Hershey facility will result in many direct and indirect economic benefits for Pennsylvania. The $300 million expansion has already infused $70 million directly into the Pennsylvania economy through construction jobs from 2010 through 2012. About 700 employees will transition from the original Hershey plant at nearby East Chocolate Avenue into the new facility.     

"To keep this legacy of manufacturing alive, we need a sound economy and a state that understands that partnership is better than confrontation," Corbett said.  "There have been some tough economic choices made at the state level, but every one of those decisions has been made with a clear understanding. Private sector employment, not government spending, creates prosperity."

Since taking office, Corbett has held the line on taxes for Pennsylvania businesses and working families, reduced barriers to job creation by lowering job-killing taxes on businesses and preserved critical tax credit programs that encourage private-sector job growth.

"We need to create the kind of economic vibrancy that ripples across the state, selling everything from new cars, to chocolate bars until we have fully employed citizens," Corbett said. 

"To achieve this, state government must first be changed from a culture of tax-and-spend to one of build-and-save. Second, the free-market should be left to do what it does best. And most importantly, we must make sure that every Pennsylvania man or woman who wants a job has a chance at finding one."

The Hershey Company received Opportunity Grant Program funds and state employee training funds during the expansion of the West Hershey Plant. Already, Hershey has invested more than $1.7 million in transition training to provide employees with the knowledge and skills to succeed in the new facility.

Corbett has made getting Pennsylvanian's trained and back to work a top priority since taking office. He created Keystone Works, a job training and placement program that focuses on getting unemployed Pennsylvanians back to work and also created a program to provide grants to students enrolling in certificate programs that are needed by high demand industries like energy, agriculture, and construction. 

"We are beginning to see the fruits of these efforts," Corbett said. "Pennsylvania's unemployment rate has remained below the national average for the past year-and-a-half and manufacturing employment has risen in the past two years. This is a success story in the making and we need to keep up the momentum."

"I am told that when Hershey recently premiered a documentary about the company's history, current employees saw parents and grandparents in the old film footage," Corbett said. "That's the great thing about success. Our children and their children after them can inherit it. That's a legacy worthy of honor."

The expanded West Hershey plant is one of the largest and most modern candy manufacturing facilities in the world. The plant will be officially open for business today.  The Hershey Company employs 4,800 Pennsylvanians.

For more information, visit www.pa.gov.

Media contact:  Kelli Roberts, 717-783-1116

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor