There is no doubt that 1999 was a most difficult and disappointing year for Hershey Foods
Corporation. llhile the year got off to a slow start due to excessive retail inventories, we fully
expected a strong finish in the second half of the year. Instead, the implementation of the Jinal
phase of the Corporation's enterprise-wide information system created problems in the areas of
customers ervice,w arehousinga nd orderf uffillment. Thesed fficulties were exacerbatedb y our
growth in recent years which hd resulted ín shipping capacity constraints. As a result,
Hershey's sales and earnings fell well short of expectation for the year