Hershey’s VP of global operations steps down

HERSHEY, Pa. Less than 18 months after joining candymaker The Hershey Co., senior vice president of Global Operations Gregg Tanner announced Friday that he is leaving at the end of the month.

The third high-level Hershey executive whose departure had been announced or confirmed in the last two months, Tanner, 50, is leaving to pursue “a business opportunity that he feels will be rewarding on a professional level and will enable him to be with his family,” according to Hershey spokesman Kirk Saville.

Tanner’s departure follows Richard Lenny, Hershey’s chief executive officer, chairman and president, who announced earlier this month that he will retire at the end of the year. In August, Christopher Baldwin, senior vice president and president of Hershey’s North American Commercial Group, left the company to become president of Kraft Foods Inc.’s U.S. Snacks and cereals operations.

Tanner had been closely involved in Hershey’s three-year manufacturing realignment to reduce costs by eliminating some production lines in the United States and Canada by shifting some production to a new facility in Monterrey, Mexico.