Posted on 11/19/2012 2:54:48 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Hostess Brands, the maker of the iconic Twinkies snack cakes, may find a buyer when it heads to bankruptcy court today to liquidate the 82-year-old company, the companys CEO says.
I think well find buyers, CEO Gregory F. Rayburn told ABC News on Sunday. A few have surfaced already since Friday expressing interest in the brand to acquire them. Con Agra and Flowers Foods are among the companies that have expressed interest in Hostess, but Mexican company El Grupo Bimbo may have an edge, the Christian Science Monitor reported Saturday. Grupo Bimbo, headed by Mexican billionaire Daniel Servitje Montull, is the largest bread-baking company in the world.
Economists say part of the reason Hostess struggled was due to high sugar tariffs meant to protect local producers, the Monitor reported. Grupo Bimbo could take advantage of lower sugar prices in Mexico.
Hostess makes Twinkies as well as popular snacks including Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, Suzy Qs, Sno Balls and Wonder Bread.
Last week the company announced it would close after it imposed wage and benefit cuts to its workers, prompting a bitter nationwide strike.
The problem has always been the cost structure, the union rules, the pension legacy, the pension cost and the cost structure, Rayburn told ABC Sunday.
On Friday he announced the company would close, saying in a statement: We deeply regret the necessity of todays decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike. Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
ConAgra gets all sorts of government subsidies, they might have an edge.... Corn Syrup Twinkies?
wonder if they have a ‘successorship’ clause in their labor contracts....
Hostess... SELL TO NON-UNION!
Whoa, whoa, whoa. I thought when a company goes bankrupt, they just disappear into the ether! I mean that’s what would have happened to GM, right?
Doesn’t matter if another buyer is found. I try as much as possible to not buy anything made with union labor.
It’s not over yet. A judge has ordered a mediation.
The point about the American form of bankruptcy is to get useful and productive assets back into business as soon as possible to go about the business of improving life for everyone.
Older forms of bankruptcy were used to allocate residual assets, or the value thereof, to the investors ~ frequently without consideration of where they could be used, or why. Entirely too many things were sold as junk under the older philosophy.
Still, some businesses, GM for example, have already been gutted by the former management team and probably ought to be sold for the value of the scrap iron and dirt.
this is a liquidation sale, not a restructuring sale.
it is likely, someone is bidding to buy the brand and intellectualy property only. it the bid is high enough, it would be accepted, and the physical assets sold as scrape.
I kind of expected our fearless leader, the great and powerful O, to step in and declare this bankruptcy unpatriotic and demand that the rich, white, corrupt owners continue to operate,at a loss, while paying all the employees what ever they demand.
Or Bimbo Ho Hos...or Bimbo Ding Dongs. LOL!
Interesting, let El Grupo Bimbo purchases “Hostess Brands”, maybe that can be a precedent for the “undocumented” going back to Mexico for work. Perhaps boycotting union iron-fisted companies may run them into bankruptcy! If our economy is continuing into the tank, affording other such luxuries will eventually diminish. Learn to be more self-sufficient. The recipe is online, make your own.
A company like Conagra has lots of union plants and lots of non-union ones, even in the same state. Anyhow, the call to mediation has interrupted this eBay Twinkie auction.
At this point, I’ll only eat them again it:
1. They are non-union
2. They are made in China, not the U.S.
RE: They are made in China, not the U.S.
More likely Mexico, would that be acceptable to you?
Yes, as long as no unions are involved. If they open back up in the U.S. the union gets to declare victory.
Teeth hurt just reading that.
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