The Kansas City, Mo., company has gotten Twinkies, Ho Hos and other treats into new locations from movie theaters to Carl’s Jr. restaurants, which sell a Ding Dong ice-cream sandwich.
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A Beverly Hills billionaire is teaming up with other investors to buy Hostess – maker of such snacks as Twinkies and Ding Dongs – for $2.3 billion, it was reported Wednesday.
Hostess Brands could make a tasty bite for a bigger snack-food company. Additionally, Alec Gores, CEO of Gores Group and C. Dean Metropoulos intend to invest $350 million.
After the deal closes, Hostess’ current owners will hold about a 42% combined stake in Gores Holdings.
The principal officers said in a conference call that they expected to file the merger proxy with the Securities and Exchange Commission within a few weeks.
“We are extremely proud of all that we have accomplished together since we acquired these assets out of liquidation in 2013 and rebuilt the company into the great platform business it is today”, said Andy Jhawar, senior partner and head of the consumer and retail group at Apollo.
NPR stated that this latest announcement is following in a line of changing trends for Hostess as it bounces back from its previous Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and brief operations shut down in 2012. Metropoulos, the company’s executive chairman, and William Toler, its chief executive, will stay on in their current roles. The company has a direct-to-warehouse distribution system.
“We think of ourselves as a billion-dollar startup”, said Toler, who will continue as CEO.
As Forbes reports, the new owners “quickly moved to modernize factories, slash delivery costs and lengthen the shelf life of Twinkies”.
Hostess was founded in 1919 with the introduction of its swirly-topped CupCake, but its first true hit was the Twinkie, first baked in 1930.
Hostess Brands is being sold. A brand like Twinkies, that has achieved a certain pop-culture status, might have enough cache for customers to set aside their sugar aversion.
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Spokesperson Hannah Arnold tells KVOE News Emporia will remain the flagship production facility, a designation the Emporia plant has had since the Apollo-Metropolous partnership took over three years ago. The new company will be focused on “strategic acquisitions”, he said.
