Hostess picks lead bidders for Twinkies
By By Candice Choi
Topics: From the Wires, News
NEW YORK (AP) — Hostess has picked a lead bidder for its famous Twinkies.
The bankrupt company said late Wednesday that it has selected a joint offer from two investment firms — C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC — as the lead bid for its Twinkies and other snack cakes.
Hostess says the two are teaming to on $410 million bid for the snack-cake business and five bakeries.
The “stalking horse” bid would set the floor for an auction process that lets competitors make better offers. A judge would have to approve any final sale. In an interview on CNBC Thursday morning, Hostess CEO Greg Rayburn said he expects the auction for the cakes to be “wild and wooly.” Twinkies and other cakes could return to shelves during the back-to-school season, he said.
After years of management turmoil and turnover, Hostess declared in November it was going out of business and selling its brands. The company already announced separate lead bidders for its other brands including Drake’s cakes and Wonder bread.
The offer sets the stage for the return of Twinkies and other Hostess cakes to supermarket shelves under new management, which could mean stepped up marketing for the spongy yellow cakes with mysterious cream filling. Although supermarkets saw a run on Twinkies when news hit in November that Hostess was going out of business, the company’s sales had been declining amid changing tastes and a lack of investment in marketing.
In bankruptcy proceedings, Hostess has stressed that it needs to move quickly in the sale of its brands to capitalize on the outpouring of nostalgia and media coverage prompted by its demise. The longer the cakes and breads are off shelves, the more people will become accustomed to eating cakes and breads by rivals, the company has said.
Still, Hostess cakes generated significant sales to the end. For its final year, Twinkies pulled in about $76.2 million, according to Hostess. Hostess Donuts brought in $384.6 million and CupCakes brought in $138.1 million. The figures exclude sales at Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
Hostess Brands Inc., based in Irving, Texas, has been filing the bids for its brands in stages. Flowers Foods Inc., which makes Tastykakes and a variety of breads, was picked as the lead bidder for six of Hostess’ major bread brands, including Wonder.
United States Bakery Inc. was picked as the lead bidder for a number of smaller bread brands.
Hostess had been making its second trip through bankruptcy reorganization last year and hired Rayburn as a turnaround expert. Rayburn announced in November that the company would have to shut down after workers at its second biggest union went on strike and the company couldn’t reach a deal on a new contract.
The shuttering means the loss of roughly 18,000 jobs in total. Hostess has said the wind down is expected to take about a year, with the company retaining top management during that time to see through the process.
On Monday, the company requested in a bankruptcy filing to stop making payments to its retiree benefits as of Feb. 28. It had already stopped making contributions to employee pensions in August 2011.
___
Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi
Related Stories
More Related Stories
-
Jon Karl makes things worse
-
How Guantanamo affects China: Our human rights hypocrisies
-
Top 5 investigative videos of the week: Nailing a dictator
-
Alex Gibney: Julian Assange has become like "those he despises"
-
New Yorker launches tool by Aaron Swartz to protect leaks
-
Financial Times hacked by Syrian Electronic Army
-
Gitmo hunger strike reaches 100th day
-
New DSM, new debates over ADHD and autism
-
John Brennan makes surprise Israel trip over Syria concerns
-
Pentagon officials: Drone War on Terror is endless
-
Toronto mayor reportedly caught on video smoking crack
-
Google Glass chief: "You'll know" when someone is spying on you
-
California powers $550 lottery jackpot
-
North Dakota lawmaker: Blame Roe v. Wade for school shootings
-
Take the Pope Francis tour of Buenos Aires and be pontiff for a day
-
U.K. hacker sentencing highlights U.S. overreach
-
Obama leaves room for whistle-blower prosecution
-
Should Obama go Bulworth?
-
Government to share cyber-vulnerabilites info with private sector
-
Lockheed Martin yet another victim of the sequester
-
Report: 84 percent NY fast food workers report wage theft
Featured Slide Shows
The week in 10 pics
close X- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
Credit: AP/LM Otero -
Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
Credit: AP/Matt Rourke -
A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher -
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
Credit: AP/Molly Riley -
Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite -
Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster -
O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid -
Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield -
When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin -
A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin -
Recent Slide Shows
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
- Share on Twitter
- Share on Facebook
- Thumbnails
- Fullscreen
- 1 of 11
- Previous
- Next
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Mobile Entertainment: 9 Amazing Drive-In Movie Theaters Still Standing
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Netflix's April Fools' Day categories
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
The week in 10 pics
-
Slideshow: Nerd Obama
Related Videos
Most Read
-
Revenge, ego and the corruption of Wikipedia
Andrew Leonard
-
Obstruction will ruin GOP
Jonathan Bernstein
-
Jaron Lanier: The Internet destroyed the middle class
Scott Timberg
-
Is Reddit censoring openly racist users?
Fidel Martinez, The Daily Dot
-
The man behind Abercrombie & Fitch
Benoit Denizet-Lewis
-
My "truly remarkable" cancer breakthrough
Mary Elizabeth Williams
-
We're living in an Ayn Rand economy
Paul Buchheit, AlterNet
-
When the IRS targeted liberals
Alex Seitz-Wald
-
Krist Novoselic: My plan to fix Congress, curb obstruction
Krist Novoselic
-
Cannes: The 10 hottest movies
Andrew O'Hehir
Popular on Reddit
links from salon.com

64 points65 points66 points | 3 comments

32 points33 points34 points | 1 comment


Comments
0 Comments