Hostess Brands closing for good

[Foxy Brown]

Hostess Brands -- the maker of such iconic baked goods as Twinkies, Drake's Devil Dogs and Wonder Bread -- announced Friday that it is asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations, blaming a strike by bakers protesting a new contract imposed on them.

The closing will result in Hostess' nearly 18,500 workers losing their jobs as the company shuts 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers nationwide, as well as 570 outlet stores. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union represents around 5,000 Hostess employees.

"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," said CEO Gregory Rayburn in a statement.

Hostess will move to sell its assets to the highest bidder. That could mean new life for some of its most popular products, which could be scooped up at auction and attached to products from other companies.

[JFC]

I would've loved to have seen the faces of the striking workers when they found out that they were going to completely lose their jobs because their strike caused the company to shut down.

[kuro808]

oh well, no more twinkies

[JFC]

oh well, no more twinkies

OSHIT SON!!! TWINKIES BE COMIN' BACK YO!!!

Twinkies Are Back! Set to Hit Shelves By Summer
March 20, 2013 // 5:00 am // By: Charisma Madarang 

Damn, we bet those people who tried buying that $15 million Twinkie feel duped right about now. After reporting that Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. made a joint offer of $410 million to revive the fallen cream-filled pastries, a bankruptcy judge approved the sale of the Twinkies brand on Tuesday. The deal also includes HoHos, Ding Dongs and Sno Balls — meaning our favorite sugar-infused fambam is back.

As the NYT notes, “The sale will mean that Twinkies, born more than 83 years ago in an Illinois industrial kitchen, will live on, having survived wars, recessions and the South Beach and Dukan diets.” We predict that it will also survive the current onslaught of paleo diets and kale-crazed juicers.

Of course, the new partners are veterans in the food industry. Metropoulos & Co. owns Pabst beer, while Apollo Global Management has investments in Carl’s Jr. and Hardee’s. For those wondering if the Hostess name will be left buried under stale crumbs, don’t fret. Daren Metropoulos, one of Mr. Metropoulos’ sons and a firm executive, assured that “[t]here’s a great consumer fan base that hasn’t declined” and “a real opportunity to revitalize these brands, just with some T.L.C.”

Btdubs, the sale of Wonder Bread, Nature’s Pride, Home Pride and Merita were signed off to Flowers Foods, the makers of Tastykakes for $360 million; the sale of Hostess’ Beefsteak brand to Grupo Bimbo was also given the go-ahead at $31.9 million.

That’s all great but let’s be real, it’s all about the Twinkies.

H/T NYT

http://foodbeast.com/content/2013/03/20/twinkies-are-back-set-to-hit-shelves-by-summer/
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/hostess-picks-apollo-led-group-as-new-owner-of-twinkies/

 

[JFC]

^
Follow-up to my last post here:

Meet The Guys Who Rescued Twinkies
A family-run private equity shop spent $410M to keep Hostess snacks alive.
04/11/2013

For a brief moment, snack food afficionados were in a panic: Hostess, the makers of Twinkies and a host of other American classics, had declared bankruptcy and were at risk of disappearing from shelves for ever. But, this being America, private equity stepped in and saved the day: Apollo Group Management and Metropoulos & Co. bought the snack food portion of Hostess and plan to breathe life back into the iconic cakes.

LINK TO ARTICLE - http://www.nowthisnews.com/news/twinkies-rescued-corporate-america/
VIDEO LINK - http://p.nowthisnews.com/entry/2225/

[PowerTenma]

For a moment there, I thought Zombieland was coming true...

[CheeseHead]

But what about Wonder Bread?

Hope somebody brings that back too.

[JFC]

Twinkies (the real ones) back on store shelves in July
Amy Langfield , NBC News - 2 days ago

Stand down Twinkies hoarders, you can start eating your secret stash.

Twinkies will hit store shelves nationally by late July, Michael Cramer, executive vice president of Hostess Brands LLC told NBC News on Thursday. "We expect to be making and selling in July," he said. "Probably the later half of the month before the product hits the stores."

All of the classic Hostess snack brands will return, some making their return in August and September. Hostess Donettes and some of the snack cakes will be among the first to return. And "Twinkies for sure," Cramer said.

In November, all 36 Hostess Brands, Inc., plants shut down after an extended stand-off with the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union. That Hostess company has almost completely wound down its operations, selling its assets in pieces. The bulk of the Hostess Snacks brands the public knows best -- Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ho Hos, Zingers, Ding Dongs and Suzy Q’s -- were purchased in April for $410 million by hedge funds Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. Other Hostess lines, such as Wonder bread, went to affiliates of Flowers Foods, while its Beefsteak bread brand was snatched up by Grupo Bimbo, S.A.B. de C.V.

It is the new company, Hostess Brands, LLC, that will start hiring this weekend to resume operations with 200 employees at the Dolly Madison Bakery in Columbus, Ga., one of the locations shuttered in November.

Besides the Georgia location, Hostess Brands, LLC also bought plants in Schiller Park, Ill.; Emporia, Kan.; Indianapolis, Ind.; and the Atwater Village section of Los Angeles, Cramer said. At least some of those will resume operations simultaneously with Georgia. Emporia, which is already hiring, according to listings on online job sites, will likely be among the reopened locations, he said. Corporate operations will be run out of Kansas City and Dallas.

As the hiring resumes, it will not be in conjunction with the unions, Cramer said. "We're sure not going to invite the unions in. We don't have to do it," he said. Though of course nothing prevents the workers from unionizing down the line, he said.

But when Twinkies return to the shelves after an absence of more than six months, it will find competition.

Flowers Foods, Inc., which purchased some of Hostess’ other assets, has its own Twinkies lookalikes. Its Blue Bird brand sells Bingles while its Mrs. Freshley label sells Dreamies cream-filled cakes. McKee Foods’ Little Debbie brand also makes its own Twinkies twin called a Cloud Cake. The name’s even trademarked.

A spokesman for Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo, the world’s largest bread baker and the owners of Sara Lee and Entenmann's brands in the United States, on Wednesday declined to say whether it was considering its own Twinkies competitor in the United States. But should Grupo Bimbo decide to jump into the fray, it has a pretty good options on hand.

Bimbo already makes a Twinkies lookalike in Mexico called Submarinos, which are available with vanilla, chocolate or strawberry filling. Bimbo Bakeries USA since 1997 has been importing strawberry-filled Submarinos into the United States under its Marinela brand catering to Hispanic customers. In 2012 it started importing the vanilla ones as well, a company spokesman said.

After this story was originally published, a reader sent a picture of another Twinkies clone he said recently hit shelves in Los Angeles. The packaging of the new Golden Creme Cakes state they are made by the Sara Lee division owned by Bimbo Bakeries USA. However, David Margulies, a spokesman for Bimbo Bakeries USA, said the company could not comment.

The hard-core Hostess fan will return to Hostess, but the discretionary snackers will be the key market to regain, predicted Gary Karp, the executive vice president at Technomic Inc., a food industry research and consulting firm. "Their absence has allowed people to try a variety of products that are out there," Karp said.

Karp said the only concern would be if Hostess changed any ingredients, which Cramer said will not happen.

"Everything will be as delicious and fattening as it always was," Cramer said.

http://www.nbcnews.com/business/twinkies-real-ones-back-store-shelves-july-6C9590050

[john_hung]

real twinkies & donettes or stfu (those bimbo trucks always make me  )

[flamingmoe]

The new owners are actually a shell company for S.H.I.E.L.D.
They need a steady supply of Hostess fruit pies to keep the Hulk from running amok.

[dejablue20]

The new owners are actually a shell company for S.H.I.E.L.D.
They need a steady supply of Hostess fruit pies to keep the Hulk from running amok.

This would make for a great "What If..." issue