Aggressive Mars breathes down Hershey's neck in US

This stretch of rolling dairy country has long been Milton Hershey's turf, where he first found success making chocolate more than a century ago and earned a name synonymous with chocolate in America. But M&M-making rival Mars has crept up on Hershey's dominance of U.S. chocolate buyers. And now, Mars has delivered a chocolate-coated slap in the face, setting up shop in south-central Pennsylvania, just 10 miles from Hershey's flagship factory on Chocolate Avenue. The $70 million "Dove Chocolate Center of Excellence" is the latest sign that the spotlight-shy Mars is breaking out of its shell as it tries to pound cracks into the long-held notion that Hershey is the real American chocolate company. While Mars makes its surprisingly sharp-tongued attack, Hershey has struggled to cut costs by closing U.S. plants and blending cocoa... [read full story]