This was an article that I found and it was printed on February 3rd. Everyone thinks that the chocolate industry is recession proof, but they have been having problems also. What is so interesting is that these problems are part of the SWOT analysis that we did this past week. There are giants in the chocolate industry: Hershey, Nestle, Cadbury, and Tootsie, but RMCF has been able to carve out a niche for themselves. They make $20-$30million in revenue a year, it is nothing like Hershey's $5 Billion, but they survive and this is a Strength. The big threats right now are the prices of cocoa, milk and other ingredients they need for making their product. Then consumers are not spending the money they were before and distribution costs have increased. I talked about their weaknesses earlier and it is the diversity with their Board members, there is none. They have the opportunity to stay under the radar of the big chocolate industry leaders, and continue to carve out their niche. Oh, by the way the stock took a nose dive and closed Friday 20th at $5.61.
http://community.investopedia.com/news/IA/2009/A-Slightly-Sweeter-Hershey-HSY-CBY-NSRGY0203.aspx?partner=YahooSA