Say Goodbye to Twinkies and Wonderbread

[KChiefs1]

Get used to stories like this...US going to hell.

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[ShowtimeSBMVP]

It’s a golden opportunity.

Hostess Brands is going out of business and it’s possible the company’s most iconic sugary confection – Twinkies -- could be bought by a Mexican business.

Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo, the world's largest bread-baking firm, could be on the short list for acquiring some of the Texas-based Hostess’ foodstuffs, according to Forbes. Grupo Bimbo already owns parts of Sara Lee, Entenmann’s and Thomas English Muffins.

Other firms that could be in the running include ConAgra and Flowers Food, the American company behind Nature Valley granola, as well as McKee Foods, baker of Little Debbie snack cakes, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

Pepperidge Farm, a division of Campbell Soup Co., is also considered a prospective buyer, analysts told Fox Business.

The Monitor reports Bimbo has already been present around the bankruptcy proceedings that have haunted Hostess for a decade, in a bid to further expand its North American portfolio and pad its $4 billion net worth.

According to Forbes, Bimbo put in a low-ball bid of $580 million a few years ago. But Hostess may turn out to be a steal with a reported worth of $135 million today.

The Hostess brands “most likely will be purchased by a competitor that will bolt the additional sales to a more efficient delivery system,” David Pauker, a food industry restructuring specialist, tells Reuters. “The company itself won't survive.”

Daniel Servitje Montull runs Grupo Bimbo along with his family. Under his leadership, which began in 1997, Daniel Servitje positioned the company for rapid growth. This included a battle with Mexico’s tortilla king and bringing white bread to Latin American markets, according to Forbes.

Today Bimbo, which reportedly competes with U.S. companies like Kellogg, Hershey and General Mills, is a $10 billion sales business with $200 million cash on its balance sheet, according to Forbes.

That’s a lot of Twinkies.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/18...#ixzz2Cg8RSdnb

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by ChiefsandO'sfan

It’s a golden opportunity.

Hostess Brands is going out of business and it’s possible the company’s most iconic sugary confection – Twinkies -- could be bought by a Mexican business.

Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo, the world's largest bread-baking firm, could be on the short list for acquiring some of the Texas-based Hostess’ foodstuffs, according to Forbes. Grupo Bimbo already owns parts of Sara Lee, Entenmann’s and Thomas English Muffins.

Other firms that could be in the running include ConAgra and Flowers Food, the American company behind Nature Valley granola, as well as McKee Foods, baker of Little Debbie snack cakes, the Christian Science Monitor reports.

Pepperidge Farm, a division of Campbell Soup Co., is also considered a prospective buyer, analysts told Fox Business.

The Monitor reports Bimbo has already been present around the bankruptcy proceedings that have haunted Hostess for a decade, in a bid to further expand its North American portfolio and pad its $4 billion net worth.

According to Forbes, Bimbo put in a low-ball bid of $580 million a few years ago. But Hostess may turn out to be a steal with a reported worth of $135 million today.

The Hostess brands “most likely will be purchased by a competitor that will bolt the additional sales to a more efficient delivery system,” David Pauker, a food industry restructuring specialist, tells Reuters. “The company itself won't survive.”

Daniel Servitje Montull runs Grupo Bimbo along with his family. Under his leadership, which began in 1997, Daniel Servitje positioned the company for rapid growth. This included a battle with Mexico’s tortilla king and bringing white bread to Latin American markets, according to Forbes.

Today Bimbo, which reportedly competes with U.S. companies like Kellogg, Hershey and General Mills, is a $10 billion sales business with $200 million cash on its balance sheet, according to Forbes.

That’s a lot of Twinkies.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/11/18...#ixzz2Cg8RSdnb

That's what I figured. And it is pretty horrible news for the 18,500 unemployed.

The names and recipes will be bought, produced, and distributed through another company's system.

[Saulbadguy]

"New lifeline for Hostess workers: Bankruptcy judge orders company to enter mediation with Bakers Union (from AP)'

[tk13]

Amazed this didn't get posted. I will post it without comment and let you all fight it out.

A federal bankruptcy judge has approved bonuses for executives of Hostess, the maker of Twinkies, who stay on as the company is broken up and sold off.

On Thursday, as part of a plan to liquidate the company and lay off 18,000 workers, a federal judge in White Plains, N.Y., approved paying 19 Hostess executives bonuses totaling $1.8 million. Hostess has said it has interest from at least 110 firms who want to buy pieces of the operation.

The decision comes as the company, known for its iconic snack cakes like Ho Hos and Ding Dongs, says it doesn't have enough cash on hand to pay retirement benefits to some former employees.

The bonuses do not include pay for CEO Gregory Rayburn, who was brought on as a restructuring expert earlier this year, according to The Associated Press. Rayburn is being paid $125,000 a month.

Former employees are outraged over the bonuses handed out to high ups.
"Anybody's got a reason to be upset who lost their job if there handing out large amounts of money," Paul Carroll told ABC News.

In a statement overnight, Hostess said the bonuses are designed to keep top brass from leaving before winding down what's left of the company "quickly and cost-effectively."

"I was qualified to draw my pension, with no notice I lost about 70 or 75 percent of it I didn't work 34 years to lose it," Carroll said.

Hostess was given interim approval for its wind-down last week, which gave the company the legal protection to immediately fire 15,000 union workers. Hostess said last week it will retain about 3,200 employees "to assist with the initial phase of the wind-down," which is expected to last about a year.

http://gma.yahoo.com/bankrupt-hostes...opstories.html

[007]

Its Fannie and Freddie for the bread world.

[BossChief]

So, they are taking money that is owed to the workers and giving it to the executives before the ship sinks all the way to the bottom?

WOW. Straight up corporate theft right there.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by BossChief

So, they are taking money that is owed to the workers and giving it to the executives before the ship sinks all the way to the bottom?

WOW. Straight up corporate theft right there.

They're paying people to do a job. They're going to stop paying people who aren't doing a job anymore.

[BigMeatballDave]

Originally Posted by patteeu

They're paying people to do a job. They're going to stop paying people who aren't doing a job anymore.

They are also not paying pensions that they owe.

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by Dave

They are also not paying pensions that they owe.

Yeah, that definitely sucks, but that happens in bankruptcy situations. If they don't keep people around to wind up the business, even fewer of the creditors will get paid because the liquidation will be less likely to get top dollar.

[Bowser]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Yeah, that definitely sucks, but that happens in bankruptcy situations. If they don't keep people around to wind up the business, even fewer of the creditors will get paid because the liquidation will be less likely to get top dollar.

Agreed.

That being said, do you agree that it is beyond ridiculous to keep a guy on to "wind up the business" at 125,000/month while 30+ year workers get ****ed out of their pensions?

[Mosbonian]

Originally Posted by patteeu

Yeah, that definitely sucks, but that happens in bankruptcy situations. If they don't keep people around to wind up the business, even fewer of the creditors will get paid because the liquidation will be less likely to get top dollar.

In bankruptcy the only people to truly get paid are:

Secured Creditors
Attorneys
CPA/Accountants hired for Forensic Account purposes
Employees who wind down the business
"Experts" in bankruptcy wind-down operations (Usually these are the experts who know how to maximize value of the bankruptcy estate)



Everyone else takes a haircut....some get a slight trim, others get it all taken off the top.

[BigRedChief]

Originally Posted by patteeu

They're paying people to do a job. They're going to stop paying people who aren't doing a job anymore.

They worked for 30 years to get that pension. Now what are they going to live on?.....unemployment and the taxpayer dime. While the executive gets a 300K raise and the junior executives get raises for the fantastic job they did running it into the ground.

You see nothing wrong with this picture?

[patteeu]

Originally Posted by BigRedChief

They worked for 30 years to get that pension. Now what are they going to live on?.....unemployment and the taxpayer dime. While the executive gets a 300K raise and the junior executives get raises for the fantastic job they did running it into the ground.

You see nothing wrong with this picture?

If the judge who has all the information approves it, why should I come to a different conclusion based on almost no information?

[DaFace]

Originally Posted by patteeu

If the judge who has all the information approves it, why should I come to a different conclusion based on almost no information?

Though it sounds awful and I don't blame the workers for being pissed, I agree with pat on this one. If you literally just fold up shop, there's even less money in the company to pay off debts and salvage whatever they can of those workers' pensions. It sounds like a lot of money to me for sure, but if they think they can save $200k per month by paying that guy $150k per month, they're making positive progress for everyone even if it doesn't seem that way.