The Hostess

Known for sweet treats like Twinkies, Wonder Bread and the “Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling”, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos, Suzy Q’s, Dolly Madison Zingers, and Drake’s Ring Dings,the Hostess Brands was back in Chapter 11. On Wednesday,11 January 2012, after three years emerging from an early restructing, again the company went from cream filling to the bankruptcy filling. Hostess Brands had shut down and went into final bankruptcy liquidation, killing 18,500 jobs and selling off its factories,brands and other assets. What is actually made Hostess to this point?

A decade ago, as the popularity of junk food faded, Hostess is one of the largest packaged food companies focused on developing, manufacturing, marketing, selling and distributing fresh baked sweet goods in the United States. The company stretches back for 82 years had struggled with commodity costs and rising labor. However, for the first time in 2004, it filed for bankruptcy. After 5 years, under the name of Hostess Brands,it came out of bankruptcy in 2009. To adapt to changing times, Hostess made an effort to introduce new products like 100-calorie Twinkies Bites. The company loaded with debt and also had new equity backers. That’s make it tough to invest in new equipment. the workforce had very high labor costs and was heavily unionized at the same time. In fiscal 2012, on revenues of $2.5 billion, Hostess had a net loss of $1.1 billion. Then,the company filed for Chapter 11 i n January.

Let’s go away back. In 1849, a small bakery on Broome Street in Lower Manhattan was founded by Robert B. Ward. His family sold a cream-filled yellow spongecake that would go on to create a baking empire around the world. Then, in the history of Hostess, the key moment was started. In 1919, the story begins. That’s when the world was introduced to the Hostess CupCake. It’s perhaps the first and most significant moment in the history of snack cakes. Six years later, in 1925, Continental Baking, acquired Taggart Baking of Indianapolis that owned by Mr. Ward’s grandson,wanted to add a line of cakes that called Wonder Bread to sell alongside a hot little item.This known as Hostess, the new line of sweet treats. And a brand was born.

In 1912, Otto Rohwedder is an inventor in Missouri. He slice whole loaves of bread with a slice machine. Eighteen years later, Continental Baking produce Wonder bread nationwide by using his invention. During World War II, in part to conserve wax paper, the United States temporarily banned sliced bread. James A. Dewar, a manager of the Continental Baking plant in Illinois, by filling a shortcake with a sugar and cream mixture the Twinkies was concocted in . He came up an advertisement for “Twinkle Toe Shoes” with the named based on,

Following the end of World War II’s flour and sugar rationing, Hostess introduced an upside-down cupcake covered in coconut flakes and marshmallow which called Sno Balls in 1947. On television commercials, the company also marketed its cakes to youngsters . After 20 years, there is new shapes for cream-filled snacks. Hostess shaped Ding Dongs and the Swiss-roll Ho Hos snack cakes to expand its product line with the hockey-puck.

In 1971, the baker of making false nutritional claims, the Federal Trade Commission was accused. Wonder bread, the F.T.C. said, sugar was the primary ingredient in Hostess snack cakes and weight-loss claims for Profile Bread were false. It was just a standardized enriched bread. After eight years, in 1979, the death Mayor George Moscone of San Francisco and fellow supervisor Harvey Milk was convicted of shooting by Dan White. Mr. White’s lawyer argued that his client had an addiction to sugary junk food in part of a “diminished capacity”. The jury of Mr. White convicted him as a voluntary manslaughter rather than murder.

In 1984, the Hostess sold their company to the pet food maker. Ralston Purina, the conglomerate that counted pet food among its better-known products,was agreed to buy Continental Baking from I.T.T (Invitation To Tender) . Then,a charge brought against Hostess in 1974 after the F.T.C. (Federal Trade Commission) cleared I.T.T. of trying to monopolize the baking industry. After 2 years,in 1986, Twinkies election were dismissed a fraud charges. Charges against a 71-year-old City Council candidate in Minneapolis who was accused of handing out $31 worth of Twinkies, Ho Hos and coffee to elderly voters were dismissed.

Nine years later, in 1995, a Baking Giant was created by a acquisition. The Hostess Twinkies sold to the Interstate Bakeries Corporation by Ralston Purina. The Ralston out of the food business because of the acquisition made Interstate the largest bakery company in the United States. In 2004, Twinkies still concern and catch up with health. People were still eating Twinkies and Wonder bread, but people were eating less of them because of the problem from Interstate Bakeries. The cakes survived the Great Depression,then filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection because Interstate succumbed to the low-carb Atkins and South Beach Diets.

Then, the Interstate becomes Hostess and gets out of Chapter 11 more than four years later in 2009. After that, Interstate Bakeries renamed itself Hostess Brands and emerged from bankruptcy protection. Unfortunately, they’re back in bankruptcy court in 2012. The company went to bankruptcy filing from cream filling, just about three years,after Hostess emerging from an earlier restructuring. In January 2012, the company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization. But later that year, the company asked for yet another round of painful concessions from its unions and make the workers went on strike. In November, the company laying off 18,500 workers and closing the plants after decided to liquidate.

Finally, Twinkies and Ding Dongs along with Ho Hos, Sno Balls and Zingers was agreed by Hostess Brands to sell them to the two investment firms with a history of corporate turnarounds. The new owners are Metropoulos & Company and Apollo Global Management , which owns Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and Vlasic pickles.

In a nut shell, from 2013 to 2016, the company was overhauled. Under new leadership, the recipe of Twinkies is tweaked to last longer. Now, only 1,200 people employs by Hostess, lost their jobs during the 2012 bankruptcy who were a fraction of the roughly 8,000 workers in the snack-cake division. Meanwhile in 2016, in the company, there is a new private equity owner.The owners of Hostess Brands agreed to sell a majority stake in the company to a publicly traded affiliate of the Gores Group, a private equity firm. On the Nasdaq exchange, it started trading last month and thr ticker symbol is TWNK.