I am praying that sunmaid raisin bread is not producted by them. That would be a big tragedy.

toria wrote:I am praying that sunmaid raisin bread is not producted by them. That would be a big tragedy.

Sunmaid is produced and distributed by Lewis Bakeries-- the same folks who bring you Butternut Bread. You really should buy Pepperidge Farm Raisin Swirl (shameless self-promotion, on my part)

When I worked in a grocery store the bread and hostess deliveries were completely different in terms of the trucks used, frequency of delivery and attention to stocking and shelving. Two different jobs.

Real tragedy here is the job loss. Like jays potato chips someone will buy the brands but those jobs are gone forever. Today that's a horrible thing and the CEO and his board should be ashamed.

auxen1 wrote:When I worked in a grocery store the bread and hostess deliveries were completely different in terms of the trucks used, frequency of delivery and attention to stocking and shelving. Two different jobs.

Real tragedy here is the job loss. Like jays potato chips someone will buy the brands but those jobs are gone forever. Today that's a horrible thing and the CEO and his board should be ashamed.

Don't be too sure on the job loss: Unlike salty snacks (and of course the immortal Twinkie), bread has a short shelf life, and is produced locally. Those factories have a fair shot at being resurrected, assuming that outdated equipment wasn't a contributor to the bankruptcy, and the company that buys them out not having excess capacity (which in this economy might be pretty likely). Warehouses are more fungible, those jobs are probably gone.

I think I might have written this recently in another thread, but my emotional connection is to Hostess Sno-Balls, because when I was a wee thing, I was in the Peanut Gallery on Howdy Doody, of which Hostess was the primary sponsor, and upon exiting the studio after the live broadcast (which had been a mind-bending, life-altering experience for me), each of us wee things was handed a free package of Hostess Sno-Balls.

Hostess Sno-Balls are my madeleines.

Just a little background I found regarding a couple of points discussed above -

Hostess Brands has been in bankruptcy proceedings since January.

HB is "controlled by a group of investment firms including hedge funds Silver Point Capital and Monarch Alternative Capital" (CNN Money website)

HB bakers went on strike Nov. 9 protesting a new contract that mandated a second round of cuts in wages, pensions, and benefits (first round was four years ago). Management said they would file to liquidate if strikers did not return to work by 5pm on the 15th.

Teamsters had just accepted a similar new contract.

Liquidation means the company's owners can sell off their product lines to the highest bidders.

I don't think it's available for free online, but there was an excellent story in Fortune a month or two ago about the whole sad history of Hostess Brands and its serial ownership by a number of private equity firms.

rickster wrote:I don't think it's available for free online, but there was an excellent story in Fortune a month or two ago about the whole sad history of Hostess Brands and its serial ownership by a number of private equity firms.

Perhaps this article? (money.cnn.com is the web arm of Fortune mag)

auxen1 wrote:When I worked in a grocery store the bread and hostess deliveries were completely different in terms of the trucks used, frequency of delivery and attention to stocking and shelving. Two different jobs.

Real tragedy here is the job loss. Like jays potato chips someone will buy the brands but those jobs are gone forever. Today that's a horrible thing and the CEO and his board should be ashamed.

Doesn't it strike you as odd to say that someone will buy the brands (presumably to produce the products) but the jobs are gone forever?

Haven't you ever seen Tommy Boy? Whoever wants the brand just wants the boxes. They'll substitute their own cream filled yellow cake using the people who already work for them at factories and machines they already own.

Hang in there folks...

Hostess Brands Inc, its lenders and the unions representing its striking workers, agreed to start mediation hearings on Tuesday at the urging of a U.S. bankruptcy court judge.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 5592.story

This article contains a sentence not found in the Tribune article, unless I missed it:

The U.S. Trustee, an agent of the U.S. Department of Justice who oversees bankruptcy cases, said in court documents it is opposed to the wind-down plan because Hostess plans improper bonuses to company insiders.

The US Trustee makes that objection in virtually all bankruptcy cases.

My guess is this is a last ditch effort and will not result in anything. I hope not because of the jobs and iconic brand. The reason the jobs would go away is that the factories would be sold off or at least some of them. Articles said that many of the Hostess factories are old, maybe they are not the most modern or efficient. The goods could easily be made in other locations at already existing factories that could be retooled by whoever buys it.

toria wrote:The goods could easily be made in other locations at already existing factories that could be retooled by whoever buys it.

Or in Mexico, I imagine.

11/21/12 alerts@marketwatchmail.com Hostess gets bankruptcy judge's OK to liquidate

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hostes ... 2012-11-21

tarte tatin wrote:11/21/12 alerts@marketwatchmail.com Hostess gets bankruptcy judge's OK to liquidate

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hostes ... 2012-11-21

Funny hats and champagne all around at hedge fund HQ! Woohoo!!!

Yes! Now I can finally put an elevator in my garage for my fourteen cars!!!!!

Perhaps the eventual owners of the brand will put out a new snack treat called Bain Bongs.

Hi- For those of you already going through Twinkies withdrawal, I just ran across this video on youtube. It is done by Jolene Sugarbaker who has the Trailerpark cooking show on youtube. I already gave a link to her you tube for pina colada muffins, but here is one for a Twinkies snackcake clone, which she did after hearing that hostess was going to quit making them. What is ironic, is that preceding her youtube, there is a public service announcement from the American Diabetes Association, telling you how to control your blood sugar, which is two minutes long. You can skip it if you want to and just watch the cooking show.
http://www.youtube.com/JoleneSugarbaker

Enjoy, Nancy

Roger Ramjet wrote:

tarte tatin wrote:11/21/12 alerts@marketwatchmail.com Hostess gets bankruptcy judge's OK to liquidate

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hostes ... 2012-11-21

Funny hats and champagne all around at hedge fund HQ! Woohoo!!!

Why?

the company goes to the CREDITORS, not to the current owners.

jlawrence01 wrote:

Roger Ramjet wrote:

tarte tatin wrote:11/21/12 alerts@marketwatchmail.com Hostess gets bankruptcy judge's OK to liquidate

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hostes ... 2012-11-21

Funny hats and champagne all around at hedge fund HQ! Woohoo!!!

Why?

the company goes to the CREDITORS, not to the current owners.

Partially true, but you are also forgetting about bankruptcy priorities, and secured debt.

jlawrence01 wrote:

Roger Ramjet wrote:

tarte tatin wrote:11/21/12 alerts@marketwatchmail.com Hostess gets bankruptcy judge's OK to liquidate

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/hostes ... 2012-11-21

Funny hats and champagne all around at hedge fund HQ! Woohoo!!!

Why?

the company goes to the CREDITORS, not to the current owners.

Assets will be auctioned off. The hedge funds will no longer have the costs of salaries, distribution, upkeep, etc etc to worry about. Senior management will receive substantial bonuses to "help with the transition."

per Reuters, "'Can you imagine what Twinkies will go for?' said a person who did not want to be identified because his company planned to bid to be the liquidator. 'And Wonder Bread? These are 100-year-old brands. They have to be worth a lot.' ... In a bankruptcy filing earlier this year, Hostess assessed the value of its trademarks and intellectual property at $135 million. ... "The brands are valuable and will certainly be sold," said David Pauker, a restructuring specialist ... Pauker said that whereas some of the Hostess bakeries would be sold, many or most would be closed and scrapped ..."

It doesn't seem there will be much need to worry about the creditors .. I'm sorry, the "CREDITORS" ... senior management will probably do quite nicely, since they've done such a fine job of managing an iconic company whose products were sold nationwide. The annual reports for Ripplewood Holdings, Silver Point Capital, and Monarch Alternative Capital will look good. Needless to say, no beneficiary of those funds at the private citizen level will see enough of the money to buy a new elevator for her garage LOL - maybe a new set of tires. And there are now 18,000 fewer people out there buying things and paying taxes.

Hi- I just found out that you will still be able to purchase twinkies in Canada. The outfit that owns the rights to Hostess in Canada, is completely separate from the Us operation. Here is the link to the story.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-1 ... stess.html

Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- I just found out that you will still be able to purchase twinkies in Canada. The outfit that owns the rights to Hostess in Canada, is completely separate from the Us operation. Here is the link to the story.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-11-1 ... stess.html

Hope this helps, Nancy

Thanks, Nancy. So Canadian Twinkies will soon be as prized in the U.S. as Mexican Coke.

Hi- I just found out that Jewel is getting the last shipment of twinkies in the country. They will be announcing on their facebook page sometime this afternoon, which stores they are going to be delivered to. Hope this helps, Nancy

NFriday wrote:Hi- I just found out that Jewel is getting the last shipment of twinkies in the country. They will be announcing on their facebook page sometime this afternoon, which stores they are going to be delivered to. Hope this helps, Nancy

I can't remember the last time I had a Twinkie but with all the recent hoo-hah I find myself craving one.
The list of stores:
http://www.facebook.com/notes/jewel-osc ... aign=Notes

Hi- I just found out that the twinkies are short dated, which means that they expire in a day or two. Apparently when they showed up at the Crystal Lake store this morning, they were gone in 10 minutes. I just bet you that people are going to buy a bunch though, not realizing they are short dated, so they can sell them on ebay for lots of money..

Artie wrote:

NFriday wrote:Hi- I just found out that Jewel is getting the last shipment of twinkies in the country. They will be announcing on their facebook page sometime this afternoon, which stores they are going to be delivered to. Hope this helps, Nancy

I can't remember the last time I had a Twinkie but with all the recent hoo-hah I find myself craving one.

Me too, dammit. I keep reminding myself that the last one I had was not as great as I remembered.

Hi- Did anybody get any twinkies today? I wanted to go to Plaza Del Lago , and use my $10 coupon at Fannie May's anyway, and so I stopped in the Jewel there to see if they had come in. An employee told me that everyone was looking for them, but they had not come in. They were supposed to be there anywhere from 1:00PM-7:00PM, and it was already 4:00PM. I then went to Fannie May's to use my coupon, and ran into a friend of mine, who was buying lots more than me, and did not have a coupon.

I then went back to Jewel to see if the shipment had arrived or not. I then noticed that they had sweet potatoes on sale for $.49 a pound, and so I ended up getting some. As I was checking out, I asked the cashier if the Twinkies had showed up yet, and she said no. This was at 5:00PM. I decided it was not worth my while to wait around any more. I know if I ended up purchasing some, once I bit into them, I would hate myself for buying them. I have not had them in years, and have not really missed them. Thanks, Nancy