It's Twilight for Twinkies

If your kids love Hostess Twinkies, Ding Dongs, and Ho Ho's or Little Debbie's Banana Flips or peanut butter-and-jelly sandwiches made on Wonder Bread, you had better stock up, NOW, if you can still find the products on store shelves.  Hostess Brands, which owns and has produced the iconic snacks and bread, announced on Friday morning that it is shutting down. According to the statements issued by Hostess Brands officials, the company is unable to continue operations and emerge from Chapter 11 Bankruptcy due to an ongoing Bakers Union strike.  Here is the letter to customers posted on the Hostess website:

Dear Loyal Customer,

I must regretfully inform you that Hostess Brands has shut down all operations and will be pursuing   the sale process of all of our brands and Company assets. Many people have worked incredibly long and hard to keep this from happening, but now Hostess Brands has no other alternative than to begin the process of winding down and preparing for the sale of our iconic brands.

For many months now, the Company has been working with our unions, lenders and other stakeholders to reach a consensual resolution to legacy costs and labor contracts. Despite everyone’s considerable efforts, when we began implementing the Company’s last, best and final offer, the Bakers Union chose to stage a crippling strike. This affected our ability to continue to make products and service our customers’ needs and pushed Hostess Brands into a Wind Down scenario. As a result, the Company was forced to proceed with an orderly wind down and sale of our operations and assets. We deeply regret taking this action. But we simply cannot continue to operate without the ability to produce or deliver our products.

Hostess Brands will sell its popular cake snack brands, including Twinkies®, CupCakes®, Ding Dongs®, Ho Ho’s®, Sno Balls®, Donettes®, Drake's® cakes and Dolly Madison®. Bread brands to be sold include Wonder®, Nature’s Pride®, Merita®, Home Pride®, Butternut®, and Millbrook®, among others.

This Wind Down announcement brings our current relationship to an end and I want to take this time to thank you for your continued support and loyalty throughout the past several years.

It has been a great pleasure working with you and I wish you all the best in the future. Attached is an information sheet to help address your concerns.

Sincerely,
Rich Seban
Executive Vice President & Chief Marketing Officer
Hostess Brands, Inc.

I ate so many Twinkies as a kid-- my mother included them in my school lunch box EVERYDAY-- that as I got older, I couldn't stand the things.  However, I was absolutely in love with Hostess Apple Pies for decades!!!  I also fondly remember the old Wonder Bread bakery in Detroit and the wonderful aroma that it produced almost around-the-clock. (Note: That particular bakery closed long before this bankruptcy and is now the site of the popular Motor City Casino.)

This morning's announcement is sad, to say the least.  It is absolutely devastating to the thousands of people who worked at Hostess Brands bakeries, distribution centers and outlet stores in several states across the country.  They are all losing their jobs, most of them, immediately.  Why does this type of thing always happen right before the holidays?

Hostess workers walk a picket line in
Columbus, Indiana.

But, weighing more heavily on my mind is how the union-- in its blind ambition to "protect" its members by securing fair pay and benefits-- in this case, did its members-- and a lot of other people-- a gross disservice by pushing the company into liquidation. Translated-- NO JOBS FOR ANYONE! I'm sorry, but isn't A job with a few pay and benefits concessions better than NO job, particularly at a time when the economy is struggling and everyone is trying like hell to hang on to whatever employment they can?!? I'm just saying.  A union sitting by, watching a company trying to reorganize under Chapter 11, while refusing to compromise to make sure it's members have jobs to keep is absolutely mind boggling. It's asinine. It's downright IDIOTIC!  And, did the union workers really think this was in their best interests?  They have, now, not only screwed things up for themselves, but also for all of the non-union employees at Hostess Brands who now have no jobs, no benefits, no severance and no holiday joy.  Can you spell S-E-L-F-I-S-H?!?

I'm sure there are any number of mistakes that were made along the way by the corporate executives that contributed to filing for bankruptcy, but for the union not to recognize that this was NOT the time to play hardball with financially drowning company indicates that the union bosses were, well… big Ding Dongs!

Oh, Good Evening!