Posted on 11/29/2012 8:18:43 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
New York - Hostess Brands got final approval for its wind-down plans in bankruptcy court Thursday, setting the stage for its roster of snack cakes to find a second life with new owners - even as 18,000 jobs will be wiped out.
The company said in court that it's in talks with 110 potential buyers for its iconic brands, which also include Ding Dongs and Ho Hos. The suitors include at least five national retailers, such as supermarkets, according to a financial adviser for the company. The process has been "so fast and furious," Hostess hasn't been able to make the calls seeking buyers it previously intended, said Joshua Scherer of Perella Weinberg Partners...
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
When I heard about the million dollar bonuses upper management wanted the court to approve in the bankruptcy I figured the union employees had it right that something is seriously wrong with the company. clearly the problem was not just the unions.
i could see little debbie making a grab for this.
someone was mentioning a lot of equipment was pretty old.
Hmmm so what you are saying is Little Debbie can't wait to get her hands on Ding Dongs?
I believe the deal will involve the brands going with some bakeries, but it’s more of a real estate deal than an operational deal. Part of the problem with Hostess is that they have outdated equipment at the bakeries and they haven’t gone through a modernization process (the cost was prohibitive). Also, if you start operating the bakeries, you are generally in union territory and they expect you to rehire the employees. I would say there is zero chance that anyone wants to get back into the same business model that Hostess was operating.
At the heart of the matter....if you go back a decade...Hostess had looked at their business model and knew there were problems. They could not get past the point of rebuilding the business model with the current contracts that they had with the union. It’s the same problem of the US postal system. When Hostess even offered to give the union a quarter of the stock and two seats on the board, in exchange for just a eight percent salary cut and employees paying seventeen percent of their medical insurance....that went nowhere.
Those 18k bakers? The union might be able to find replacement jobs for a 1k of them within a year, but the vast majority are finished in their local areas. Either they move, or they have to develop new job skills. It’s a bad deal for them....but it’s what they wanted in the end. Let them walk off into the sunset....as they desired.
Baxter, are you listening?
Hostess and its labor force can go to hell as far as I'm concerned. I haven't bought any of their output in decades. But, nevertheless, I'd be amused at the spectacle of a fully automated Hostess Brands successor.
The heck with ding dongs and twinkies. It’s the DRAKES CAKES that have the best recipes in the bunch.
Devil Dogs, Ring Dings, Drakes cupcakes, Drakes Coffee Cakes (Seinfeld actually did an episode on these) Funny Bones, Yodels, and those delicious little apple pies. Believe me, there is a big taste difference between Ding Dongs and Ring Dings.
I hope, I hope, I hope someone buys and makes the Drakes recipes. But with the Hostess thrift shop gone, I doubt I’ll ever get them for a dollar a box again. Michelle O must be so happy, the evil witch. I hope she chokes.
So, if Hostess is going out of business, and they are selling all of their assets, what are they supposed to do with the money?
Give it away to the union thugs who killed the company?
Or maybe they should just hand it over to Obamaclaus so he can decide who’s been naughty or nice.
Wouldn’t that make Little Debbie a Ho Ho?
Here's an excerpt from the link firebrand posted above:
"Hostess Brands Inc., in the midst of winding down its business, won approval Thursday from a federal bankruptcy judge to give as much as $1.75 million in bonuses to its executives.
The money is intended as an incentive for 19 top-level managers to remain with the Twinkies and Ding Dongs maker to oversee its liquidation.
The payouts will be granted only if managers "achieve a set of specific tasks and goals within a specified time frame that are designed to speed and lower the cost of the wind-down," Hostess spokesman Lance Ignon said.
The maximum bonus amount, Ignon said, represents 0.07% of Hostess' revenue and 0.17% of the value of its assets and is below the average for bonuses in comparable bankruptcy cases. Hostess Chief Executive Greg Rayburn would be not be eligible for a bonus, Ignon said."
BTW, Those are the first 4 paragraphs. It's $1.75 million spread across 19 managers, and contingent on specific goals regarding the wind-down. Additionally, the CEO doesn't qualify for a bonus.
I assume they have creditors whom they can’t pay, or have to pay cents on the dollar. Isn’t that what usually happens in a bankruptcy? They were given the privilege of rewarding themselves first, with a bunch of verbiage to justify it, and the creditors then get less of what they are owed.
Just thinking of the other companies. Not the unions who drove them into the ground.
From the fourth paragraph of the article: "Hostess seeks approval in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York in White Plains, N.Y. to give its top executives bonuses totaling up to $1.8 million as part of its wind-down plans."
Do you like to eat Little Debbie?
Posting more “Food Porn” my little cupcake?
I’ll have you know that for breakfast I had organic pork sausage.
I know it was organic because it came from a real pig with real organs. For the benefits of the other organless foods on my plate, I played some Bach Fugues by E. Power Biggs in the background.
I had organic granola, sans organs...unless you count rasins.
[with unwanted Christmas music in the background]
Bah, humbug.
I have agreat marketing device for Tasty Cakes which would bring 18,00 jobs to our are. Since ‘Ho-Ho’s” were named from the first two letters of it’s parent company, Tasty Cakes should buy it out and rename the cake (with pink filling and a brown chocolate Hershey kiss in the middle)to Tasty Cakes Ta-Ta’s! Perfect!!
“Devil Dogs, Ring Dings, Drakes cupcakes, Drakes Coffee Cakes (Seinfeld actually did an episode on these) Funny Bones, Yodels, and those delicious little apple pies. Believe me, there is a big taste difference between Ding Dongs and Ring Dings.”
Absolutely true. Yes yes yes. Ring Dings are IT! Ding Dongs are just a poor copy, not at all making the grade.
Honestly, for years I have lamented the fact that in Phx Az it’s so hard to find Devil Dogs, and it seems they were much bigger when I was a kid, but then it seems so was everything;)
But I think they really were.
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