On March 19, 2013 it became official that Hostess Twinkies, Cup Cakes, Ding Dong, Ho Hos, Mini Muffins, Zingers, Suzy Q’s and Dolly Madison have a new owner.
The joint venture capitalist will also acquire five bakeries and equipment with some other assets in the purchase of the snack cakes.
C. Dean Metropoulos and Apollo Global Management won their bid last Tuesday; since there were no other official bids competing for the Hostess brand the attorney for Hostess canceled the auction.
Metropoulos and Apollo investments knew they were the new owners of Hostess, but had to wait for the judge to sign off today, on the bankruptcy paperwork to make Hostess Twinkies officially their company.
Metropoulos and Apollo entered a joint venture deal to acquire Hostess Twinkies back in January with an opening bid of $410 million. Hostess wanted the bid to start out at $400 million.
Over the last couple of weeks, there were a few companies interested in purchasing Hostess such as Hostess creditor Silver Point Capital, Hurst Capital a hedge fund company and, Grupo Bimbo is the Mexican baking plant behind Entenmanns.
However, the companies did not place their bid before the deadline day of March 11.
Metropoulos and Apollo put their money where their mouth was and kept their eye on the prize of purchasing Twinkies. In case of a bidding war, the joint venture capitalist were willing to bid more money if for Twinkies.
Daren Metropoulos the son of C. Dean Metropoulos announced last week their goal is to have Twinkies on stores shelves by summer time.
Metropoulos owns Pabst beer and Apollo own the fast food chain of Hardee’s and Carl’s Jr.
Evan Metropoulos a principal at the firm stated that the brands could benefit from new flavors and product extensions.
Metropoulos said, “there’s no mistake we’ve got to move smartly; we’ve got to move quickly.”
Metropoulos has two pitchmen in mind Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis are at the top of his “wish list”. He does not plan on approaching them until all the sales for the Hostess brand closes within the next couple of weeks.
The bakers union for Hostess had previously expressed the objection to the sale. Excited about the sale since the new owners want to try and get the snack cakes on shelves by summer.
However the pending issues are all employees who lost their jobs, when the Hostess plant closed down in November 2012.
Hostess spokesman said it would be the new owners to re-hire the employees.
Mark Semer, a spokesman for Metropoulos said the firm would hire “the most qualified employees for each facility, and this certainly includes many excellent, former Hostess workers”.
Judge Robert Drain of U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Southern District of New York approved the sale for Hostess Wonder bread to Flowers Foods, which is the maker of Tastykakes and other breads.
Flower Foods will also acquire Nature’s Pride, Butternut, Home Pride and Merita as part of this deal for $360 million.
Also, the sale of Beefsteak to Grupo Bimbo who makes Entenmann’s cake brought for $31.9 million.
A hearing scheduled for April 9 will approve the sale of Drake’s cake for $27.5 from McKee Foods. McKee Foods owns Little Debbie snack cakes.
All together a Hostess spokesman said 29 of the bankrupt company’s 36 bakeries sold as the transactions.
The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union said that it believed “our highly-motivated and skilled workforce, will serve as indispensable partners in the seamless re-opening of factories.”
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