Posted on 04/23/2015 3:18:15 PM PDT by jimbo123
With ingenuity, capital and creative chemistry, billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos and Apollo Global’s Andy Jhawar rescued Hostess Brands–and set themselves up to feast on a $2 billion gain.
Walk in the door of Hostess Brands’ flagship bakery in Emporia, Kansas and your first thought is: What a dump. The former front office for the bakery that pumps out classic American treats like golden Twinkies and swirl-topped Cup Cakes is a series of dank, near-empty rooms with scuffed, oatmeal-color linoleum floors, water-stained ceiling panels and a jumble of mismatched office furniture that looks like it was picked up off the curb. Three minutes in this place and you’re suddenly thankful for the wilted sign on the front door warning visitors that firearms are barred from the premises.
This grim wing of the Hostess plant is a leftover from the old Hostess–the one that debt, pension costs and mismanagement shuttered in 2012. But throw on a hairnet and pass on to the newly rehabilitated factory floor, and it makes sense why billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos, Apollo Global senior partner Andy Jhawar and Kansas Governor Sam Brownback are standing here, breathing in the sticky sweet air on a foggy April morning.
The new factory is bright and clean. Tight rows of Twinkies m arch along the $20 million Auto Bake system with the precision of Soviet soldiers in a May Day parade. Yellow robotic arms, which look like they should be welding Teslas rather than boxing Twinkies, stack snacks with hypnotic rhythm. This 500-person plant produces more than 1 million Twinkies a day, 400 million a year. That’s 80% of Hostess’ total output–output that under the old regime required 14 plants and 9,000 employees.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I always thought twinkies were gross
Me too! 144 would be my limit as well!
Oh, you meant something else...
Bet Hostess won’t advertise the part about banning guns.
Link to Forbes site is unreadable - only grey blank page.
Does one need to be a subscriber to read the article?
I am pleased to say that my future daughter-in-law works for Apollo Global.
When people ask what she does for a living, I say with great delight, “She saved Twinkies!”
Those demanding $15 / hour should Note the reduction of staff and use of robotics
So Twinkie The Kid won’t have a cowboy hat and six shooter anymore?
No Bake Strawberry Cloud Cake
http://www.pinkwhen.com/strawberry-cake/
“What they’ve done at Hostess should be a Harvard Business School case study on how to turn around a business,” says Gatto, the Perella banker.
BRAVO!!!
My mom once made baby bootie cakes out of Twinkies for a baby shower - she was so creative.
We always joke about the nourishing attributes of Twinkies, loaded with “dairy products.”
I never cared for Twinkies but love the cup cakes. Little Debbie’s didn’t make it for me.
forbes has a interleaved ,,opening page..a.gray page where upon they post their thought for the day...
its stalled at various stages for me..as well.
The unions who forced the bankruptcy must really feel stupid
Rats! I wanted to read the entire article.
Get rid of Unions, problem solved!
Link works, that’s their opening advert page. Click in the upper right corner to move on to the story.
That’s part of what makes them great. 100% pure synthetic, nasty, foamy, sugary, wonderfully gross.
Its not the most well deigned site I have ever visited I must tell you.
Anything thats posted to interdict my visit to actual “content” on a given website is a clear sign that they arent really as up to speed as they should be.
Mmmm...
The 3 minute s’mores ice cream sounds good, too!
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