Have we, as a country, grown beyond Ding-Dongs? After posting a $341 million net loss last fiscal year, Hostess Brands, maker of iconic grody lunchbox snacks and hyper-bleached sandwich bread, is filing for bankruptcy. (Financial bankruptcy. It was always nutritionally bankrupt.)
The company, which has assets of roughly $1 billion, has been struggling under the weight of a roughly $860 million debt load and soaring expenses tied to its labor force. Hostess has up to 100,000 creditors, and its chief unsecured creditors are labor unions and pension funds that represent the company’s employees, according to the Chapter 11 petition, filed in United States Bankruptcy Court in lower Manhattan.
Hostess cites the fluctuating price of flour and the increasing costs of employee pensions and medical benefits, but we prefer to believe everyone has slowly noticed that Hostess stuff is gross.
To the delight of kindergarteners and the despair of foodies, filing for bankruptcy doesn't mean the company will stop producing; the CEO said he didn't anticipate any change in the production schedule. So Twinkies will survive — but then, Twinkies would survive a nuclear disaster.
