Hershey: profit tumbles following difficult year

Hershey / PA. (thc) The Hershey Company announced sales and earnings for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2007. Consolidated net sales were 1.342.222.000 USD compared with 1.336.609.000 USD for the fourth quarter of 2006. Reported net income for the fourth quarter of 2007 was 54.343.000 USD or 0,24 USD per share-diluted, compared with 153.572.000 USD or 0,65 USD per share-diluted, for the comparable period of 2006. For the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2006, these results, prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, include net pre-tax charges of 95,9 million USD and 5,6 million USD, or 0,30 USD and 0,02 USD per share-diluted, respectively. The majority of the 2007 charges, 83,3 million USD, are associated with the Global Supply Chain Transformation program announced in February, while 12,6 million USD was the result of business realignment and impairment charges in Brazil. The 2006 charges primarily related to the completed business realignment initiatives announced in July 2005. Net income from operations, which excludes the net charges for the fourth quarters of 2007 and 2006, was 124.120.000 USD or 0,54 USD per share-diluted in 2007, compared with 157.007.000 USD or 0,67 USD per share-diluted in 2006, a decrease of 19,4 percent in earnings per share-diluted (press release).