twoTHE LOIS ALTERNATIVE
The Hershey Chocolate Company in Hershey, Pennsylvania, is not your typical LOIS business. Its stock is publicly traded, which normally makes local ownership impossible, but a local charity, the Hershey Trust, keeps ownership local by controlling 77 percent of all voting shares.1 Unlike most LOIS businesses, it is hardly small. In 2001 about sixty-two hundred employees were on payroll, many living in the Hershey area. The company not only saturates local chocolate demand but also sells worldwide to the tune of $4.6 billion per year.
The Hershey Trust is effectively the heart that pumps monetary blood throughout the regional economy. It owns 100 percent of the shares of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company, ...
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