Twinkies back July 15 under new ownership
NEW YORK — Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for Twinkies when they return to shelves next month.
The company, which went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionized workers last year, is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15.
Based on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its demise, Hostess is expecting a blockbuster return next month for Twinkies and other sugary treats, such as CupCakes and Donettes. The company says the cakes will taste the same but that the boxes will now bear the tag line “The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever.”
“A lot of impostor products have come to the market while Hostess has been off the shelves,” says Daren Metropoulos, a principal of the investment firm Metropoulos & Co., which teamed up with Apollo Global Management to buy a variety of Hostess snacks.
Hostess Brands Inc. was struggling for years before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early 2012. Workers blamed the troubles on years of mismanagement. The company said it was weighed down by higher pension and medical costs than its competitors, whose employees weren’t unionized.
To steer it through its bankruptcy reorganization, Hostess hired restructuring expert Greg Rayburn as its CEO. But Rayburn failed to reach a contract agreement with its second-largest union. In November, he announced that Hostess would liquidate. About 15,000 unionized workers lost their jobs.
In unwinding its business, Hostess sold off its brands in chunks to different buyers. Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo bought Twinkies and other Hostess cakes for $410 million.