Hostess Defeats Unions, Americans Win, Twinkies are BACK!

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/twinkies-july-return-to-shelves_n_3486930.html

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jun 24, 2013 14:13:12 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/23/twinkies-july-return-to-shelves_n_3486930.html

NEW YORK -- Hostess is betting on a sweet comeback for Twinkies when they return to shelves next month.

The company that went bankrupt after an acrimonious fight with its unionized workers last year is back up and running under new owners and a leaner structure. It says it plans to have Twinkies and other snack cakes back on shelves starting July 15.

Based on the outpouring of nostalgia sparked by its demise, Hostess is expecting a blockbuster return next month for Twinkies and other sugary treats, such as CupCakes and Donettes. The company says the cakes will taste the same but that the boxes will now bear the tag line "The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever."

"A lot of impostor products have come to the market while Hostess has been off the shelves," says Daren Metropoulos, a principal of the investment firm Metropoulos & Co., which teamed up with Apollo Global Management to buy a variety of Hostess snacks.

Hostess Brands Inc. was struggling for years before it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in early 2012. Workers blamed the troubles on years of mismanagement, as well as a failure of executives to invest in brands to keep up with changing tastes. The company said it was weighed down by higher pension and medical costs than its competitors, whose employees weren't unionized.

To steer it through its bankruptcy reorganization, Hostess hired restructuring expert Greg Rayburn as its CEO. But Rayburn ultimately failed to reach a contract agreement with its second largest union. In November, he blamed striking workers for crippling the company's ability to maintain normal production and announced that Hostess would liquidate.

The shuttering triggered a rush on Hostess snack cakes, with stores selling out of the most popular brands within hours.

About 15,000 unionized workers lost their jobs in the aftermath.

[Deleted]

Yeah, unions were the whole reason twinkles weren't making a profit any more....

[Deleted]

What happened to those pensions?

[swamp]

Jun 24, 2013 14:23:12 GMT -5 @justaposter said:

What happened to those pensions?

they're probably still there.

[genericname]

I can't remember the last time I had a Twinkie. I didn't even miss them.

[Deleted]

Hostess the brand survives, but Hostess the company went POOF along with the union.

[steff]

LMAO!  Considering my hubby's company was one of the ones that bought out the Hostess brand products, the idea that "hostess" beat anything is funny. 

The products are there, the Hostess company, not so much.

BTW, Wonder Bread will also be returning this summer along with all the other "Hostess" brand bread products. 

All the Hostess products were divided up into "sweet goods" (Twinkies, Cupcake, etc), "breads" (Wonderbread, Nature's Pride, Dolly Madison breads, & Drake), & "other" (Sweetheart, Eddy's, Standish, Dolly Madison sweets).  Different companies bought different product lines that included the bakeries the products were made in.  Grupo Bimbo out of Mexico got some, Flowers Industries (Sunbeam) got some of bread lines, & Apollo Global got the sweet goods lines.  McKee's that owns Little Debbies won the Drake sweet goods lines.  United States Bakery also picked up the "leftover" bread products that Bimbo & Flowers didn't want. 


Sorry, but Hostess as a company is gone, but their products live on produced now by other companies.  In fact, several higher ups from hubby's plant are moving to Birmingham, Alabama to run one of the former "hostess" bakeries there.  It sure doesn't say Hostess on the front of the plant anymore.  

[steff]

Also, we dealt with Groupo Bimbo (pronounced BEEM-bo) when hubby worked in Texas & they bought out Mrs Baird's bread & sweet goods & plants.  I can say that Mrs Baird's products haven't changed much & none of the recipes or production procedures were changed.  The same goes for all the Hostess products.  When hubby's company bought out Tasty Kakes, they changed nothing at all.  The recipes & production was exactly the same.  Even the production line employees at the majority of the plants were kept on.  It was the management that was replaced.  The plants that produced Hostess brands are still where they are being made. 

[Tennesseer]

Jun 24, 2013 14:47:03 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Hostess the brand survives, but Hostess the company went POOF along with the union.

Just another fractured fairy tale thread.

[billisonboard]

Another great example of business using governmental power against workers.

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jun 24, 2013 14:47:03 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Hostess the brand survives, but Hostess the company went POOF along with the union.

Which is something the left and most of the general public don't understand.  Multiple entities, mergers, sales, acquisitions, intellectual property, and all the different ways to slice and dice a company-- you can't stop people making a profit.  You can't lay claim to a "share" of some imaginary figure. They either have the money, or they don't.  They didn't.  So, they went into bankruptcy.

So, yes, Hostess is gone, and Twinkies are back- sans 15,000 union workers. Nice job, unions. Really worked out well for you

[AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP]

Jun 24, 2013 16:41:17 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Another great example of business using governmental power against workers.

Another example of a union being unreasonable and the workers bearing the brunt of their irresponsible and impossible demands.

[Deleted]

 Pyrrhic victories are generally unproductive ones.

[thyme4change]

I remember my mother eating a Tasty Kake once and reading the nutritional information, and picking up the cardboard and saying "The nutritional value of this cardboard is better than whatever is in this Tasty Kake."  I hold that to be true of the entire Hostess sweets line of products as well.  

[Deleted]

Both the company and the union screwed the pooch on this one.  the only thing you can count on is that Americans will always demand shit food filled with sugar.

[ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ]

Jun 24, 2013 17:59:13 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I remember my mother eating a Tasty Kake once and reading the nutritional information, and picking up the cardboard and saying "The nutritional value of this cardboard is better than whatever is in this Tasty Kake."  I hold that to be true of the entire Hostess sweets line of products as well.  

Are you my long-lost sister, Thyme? Something about a couple of cupcakes wrapped in cellophane and sitting on a store shelf for who-knows-how-long, containing all kinds of yummy chemicals and preservatives just doesn't sound that appetizing to me.

I can whip up a couple dozen fresh ones in my own easy-bake oven in 1/2 hr that I know will be much more delicious and have absolutely no mystery ingredients.

[steff]

When hubby's employer bought Tasty Kake it had much more to do with having readily available plants in an area that they weren't in & didn't have any products in.  By buying them & the plants, they were able to move some production of their own products up there & introduce the products to the region.  It was a smart move on their part. 

My hubby works in the commercial bread division, not the store products & not the sweet goods.  But you know that great brown Outback bread that everyone loves....that's what my hubby makes.  Along with buns & bread for fast food companies & shops & buns sold at many ballparks. 

When hubby started in this industry, I was surprised by how many other places they supply products for other than the store.  I also love getting bagels & fresh specialty breads that are literally so warm the bag still has steam in it. 

[EVT1]

Jun 24, 2013 17:23:06 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Jun 24, 2013 16:41:17 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Another great example of business using governmental power against workers.

Another example of a union being unreasonable and the workers bearing the brunt of their irresponsible and impossible demands.

Except this isn't what happened.  Sounds great in the right wing universe though.  The big bad greedy unions ruined the poor company.  In this case, they are better off- jobs lost or not- they already gave, and gave again.  At some point you tell the employer they can stick it in their ass.

The new company (Not Hostess of course- so your thread title is again wrong) did not 'defeat' anyone.  I think Bills might be on it- yet another use of government to get out of contracts- especially those darn pensions- it is a solid business practice these days to BK out and send the pension responsibilities to someone else- meanwhile the C suite retires in permanent luxury due to the amount of money they sucked out of a dying entity.  Some of these dicks were taking millions while the ship sank- so I give the union credit for saying ENOUGH!  Rather not work than work for some POS thieves rading a corpse.

[thyme4change]

Do not doubt Paul - EVER.

[Deleted]

I can't stand Twinkies.  I would much rather have a homemade cupcake than any of the nasty snack cakes that Hostess makes.

[Tennesseer]

Jun 24, 2013 20:28:37 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Do not doubt Paul - EVER.

Is the above Cheesipedia, 2011 Edition worthy?

[djAdvocate]

Jun 24, 2013 17:23:06 GMT -5 AgeOfEnlightenmentSCP said:

Jun 24, 2013 16:41:17 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Another great example of business using governmental power against workers.

Another example of a union being unreasonable and the workers bearing the brunt of their irresponsible and impossible demands.

what was unreasonable about the union demands?

[thyme4change]

I think pensions are unreasonable.

[djAdvocate]

Jun 25, 2013 11:13:13 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

I think pensions are unreasonable.

agreed.  so they should be struck down for management too, right?

[thyme4change]

Yes - if I don't get one, no one else should either.

I also think that no executive should be given more than half a million dollars when they are fired or removed from their position.  I don't think you should fire someone and then give them a 3 year multi-million dollar consulting gig.  

[djAdvocate]

Jun 25, 2013 11:32:52 GMT -5 thyme4change said:

Yes - if I don't get one, no one else should either.

I also think that no executive should be given more than half a million dollars when they are fired or removed from their position.  I don't think you should fire someone and then give them a 3 year multi-million dollar consulting gig.  

i don't think any failed/fired executive should be given more than average CEO pay if he fails to be average.

that average was about $150k last year.

[djAdvocate]

Jun 25, 2013 11:47:36 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

At some point you tell the employer they can stick it in their ass.

Yup, doing that will surely get the bills paid.

the success of a company is a primary responsibility of management.  they failed to get it done.  blaming workers is pathetic.

[djAdvocate]

Jun 25, 2013 13:21:43 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

Jun 25, 2013 11:54:47 GMT -5 djAdvocate said:

the success of a company is a primary responsibility of management.  they failed to get it done.  blaming workers is pathetic.

You can't expect management to pull a rabbit out of a hat if there isn't one there to begin with.

sorry, but you are speculating on this one.  i'm not.

Hostess was unable to compete, having the huge employee overhead they had.

that is because management systematically destroyed a "Marquis Brand".  because of my background, and what i do, i think they should have been drawn and quartered for it.  they basically cooked the golden goose and ate it, and then blamed the workers for the lack of gold.

What else should they have done?

they should have been looking at what to do about trans fat and low carb trends for the last 30 years, rather than just sitting on their laurels.  they should have been buying up fresh juice companies like Odwalla, and getting into the fresh serve baking business as a supplier for places like Starbucks.  people don't buy snack baked packaged shelf stable goods anymore.  it is a really small market, and people that stuck to that market were torpedoed by market forces.  but as a MARQUIS BRAND, they needn't have done that.  they could have USED that Marquis brand, and their dominant shelf space in the US to rebrand the company into a HEALTH FOOD company.  they missed out, and, like i say, they should probably be drawn and quartered for it.  instead, all of the shitty managers were put in charge of the restructuring, and the workers who had nothing whatsoever to do with those bad decisions, got laid off.

there may be a case where something even less fair happened in corporate history, but i am having trouble thinking of it.

one final thing: if management was ill suited to the task of finding a viable solution, then it is management's responsibility to step down or hire other managers that DO know what to do.  so simply saying that they had an "insoluble problem" doesn't work for me AT ALL.  they had a difficult problem to solve, and rather than manning up to it, they killed the golden goose.

[djAdvocate]

oh one other thing:

their product tastes like shit.  really.  they should have done some blind testing and product improvement, rather than sticking to a texture and flavor that only appeals to people in their 80's.  they were a fossil, and they got buried.

and one more thing: they are going to get buried again, if they think they can put that chocolate topped muffin like thing back on the shelf and make a mint at it.  they can't.  they need to use the power of BRANDING and SHELF DOMINANCE to put NEW THINGS that people (younger than 80) actually want on the shelf.

idiots.