Whither Scharffen Berger?

A couple of months ago, Hershey announced that it was closing down the Scharffen Berger processing plant in California. As you may know, Hershey purchased Scharffen Berger (S/B) a few years ago, but promised to keep it as a separate entity. The chocolate was to be processed, as it always had been, in Berkeley, California. Many devoted fans, myself included, were wary of this partnership.

While the closing of this S/B plant may have symbolic meaning to the faithful, it remains to be seen what the lasting affects will be to the chocolate. Hershey claims they can continue to make S/B the same way. According to company spokespeople, most of S/B chocolate is already being made in a Hershey factory in Illinois.

However, a few questions come to mind. If Hershey could have made this type of quality cooking chocolate on its own, why did they buy S/B in the first place? Did they need to buy them to see how S/B did it? Was it merely eliminating a competitor?

Like many of you, I am skeptical of large corporations buying little artisan companies. Seldom does it work out for the fans of quality artisan products.

I will withhold judgment for the time being.

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