Free Republic

Hostess Brands Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week, said people familiar with the matter, a move that would mark the second significant court restructuring for the Twinkies and Wonder Bread baker in the past several years. The privately held Irving, Texas, company, which employs roughly 19,000 people and carries more than $860 million in debt, has been facing a cash squeeze amid high labor costs and rising prices for sugar, flour and other ingredients, according to people familiar with the matter. Those costs together have proved higher than the company's roughly...

Interstate Bakeries threatens to liquidate unless unions grant concessions By JENNIFER MANN The Kansas City Star Bankrupt Interstate Bakeries Corp. said Thursday it could be forced to liquidate if it is unable to extract major concessions from its 20,000 union workers soon. The assertion, the latest in an escalating labor confrontation, came in the struggling company’s request to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for still more time to exclusively formulate a plan of reorganization. The current deadline is Oct. 5. The Kansas City-based company, once the nation’s largest wholesale baker, sought protection from creditors and time to reorganize the business in...

Troubled Interstate Bakeries Corp., in bankruptcy since September 2004, early today said it is closing four bread bakeries in Southern California. The closings will eliminate 1,300 jobs, which besides those in the bakeries, include jobs impacted by route consolidations. Interstate, the maker of iconic Hostess Twinkies, will continue to make and sell snack cakes in Southern California. In midday over-the-counter trading, Interstate Bakeries shares were up 10 cents, or 9.09 percent, at $1.20. The company said the pullout was due to lower-cost, non-union competitors, and irrational pricing, Those factors, combined with high fixed costs, have continued to make the market...