Cargill will close a Pennsylvania chocolate plant and centralize its US chocolate business leadership in Milwaukee and Minneapolis.
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Cargill spokesman Pete Stoddart said the Milwaukee facility, located at 12500 W. Carmen Ave., will see an estimated 15 new jobs in manufacturing, customer service and office operations. About 30 other employees will see reassignments or have relocation opportunities. “We are committed to helping those who are impacted find other employment and assist them with this transition”.
The Wilbur Chocolate Candy Americana Museum and candy store at 48 N. Broad St. next to the plant will remain open.
As a result of the cuts, about 130 jobs, mostly those working at the plant in Lititz, will be eliminated, effective in January 2016.
Production at the shuttered plant will be moved to a second plant, more efficient plant in Lititz, and to plants in Hazleton, Penn.; Ontario, Canada; and Milwaukee.
The new year will bring an end to decades of chocolate-making in downtown Lititz, Lancaster County.
Former heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali took a few time off for training to introduce his namesake candy bar – the “Muhammad Ali Peanut Butter Crisp Crunch Bar” – at the Wilbur Chocolate Company on August 21, 1978. The company employs about 2,200 people in Pennsylvania. This is the general conclusion of an independent study carried out for Puratos among 11.000 consumers in 25 countries to demonstrate emerging consumer trends in the baked goods industry and to stimulate innovation in the bakery, patisserie and chocolate sectors.
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The Philadelphia region is a hotbed for chocolate processing and manufacturing. They are: Blommer Chocolate Co.in East Greenville; Barry Callebaut AG in Eddystone and Pennsauken; Cargill (formerly Archer Daniels Midland), and Mars Inc., maker of M&M sweets, in Elizabethtown, Pa., and Hackettstown, N.J.
