The World around Us. Любинская Н.А. - 14 стр.

                  Unit 4. Bitter Times for a Sweet Town
Lead in
I.   Brands often have the same name as their manufacturers, e.g. Coca Cola,
     IBM, Rolex. Can you think of some more examples?
II.  Can you match these famous brands with their makers?

                Cinzano                       Nestlé
                Marlboro                      Rowntree
                Smarties                      McDonalds
                Walkman                       Levi Strauss
                N5                            Sony
                Nescafé                       Grand
                501                           Metropolitan
                Big Mac                       Chanel
                                              Philip Morris

III.   What does the title suggest? What do you expect to find out about Her-
       shey business?

                          Bitter Times for a Sweet Town
Hershey, Pennsylvania
Fear and loathing in America’s chocolate town
       Milton Hershey must be turning in his grave. The company he built into
America’s biggest chocolate maker, with such gooey offerings as Hershey’s
Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, is trying to put itself up for sale. Ironi-
cally, it is the Hershey Trust, to which Milton handed his 77% voting stake in
Hershey Foods in 1918 after the death of his wife, Kitty, that now seems deter-
mined to deliver his life’s work into the hands of a competitors – perhaps even a
foreign one.
       The trust, though, is not really to blame. Its job is to finance a school for
disadvantages students set up by the childless Milton and Kitty, both devout
Mennonites, and to safeguard an endowment that, at $5–4 billion, is now one of
the richest educational institutions in America. Granted, that is a lot of money
and explains why the students – who had to milk cows by hand until 1989 –
have a full-sized football stadium, marbled halls and chauffeurs to ferry them to
class. But the trust wants to expand the number of students from 1,200 to 1,500,
and it has a clear fiduciary duty to diversify its portfolio. The stake in Hershey is
its only investment.
       The trouble is that Hershey is not a normal company. Hershey the busi-
ness and Hershey the town (in Pennsylvania) are intricately intertwined. The
self-styled “sweetest place on earth” features streets such as Chocolate Avenue
and Cocoa Avenue, and street lights shaped like the firm’s Kisses. Milton Her-
shey designed everything in the town, from its parks to the sewerage systems to
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