Is the Hostess Twinkie Dead?

Twinkies were recently seen selling on eBay and Craigslist faster than discounted iPads on Black Friday. And fetching some pretty hefty prices to boot--in some cases, thousands of dollars for a box of ten. A nice chunk of change when you consider the retail price for a box goes for about $5. So is the Twinkie dead? Will the famous snack be the property of collectors? Will the sugary, spongy fingers be forever encased in airtight plastic for gawkers in museums? 
 

Collectors and profiteers jammed stores hours after Hostess announced it would shut down its bakeries, forever limiting the supply of Twinkies. Needless to say, Hostess Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and Zingers were also fetching some outrageous prices. Oddly, the very people who lost their jobs at Hostess were among those trying to turn a profit by selling their store-bought inventories to collectors, junk-food lovers and connoisseurs. What many don't realize is that the sugar and creame laden snacks won't last for long. Twinkies carry an expiration date of just a few weeks.
 

Burdened by heavy debts, management problems, escalating labor costs, and the nation’s changing attitude toward junk food, Texas-based Hostess skipped a conventional Chapter 11 bankruptcy and sought legal relief to sell its assets and go out of business.
 

On the upside, with Hostess’ high brand recognition and $2.5 billion in revenue per year, there may be a number of bidders for pieces of Hostess. Twinkies alone have brought in $68 million in revenue so far this year—pretty appetizing if you’re a snack maker with some ready cash (or money to borrow at nearly zero interest these days).
 

"There's a huge amount of goodwill with the commercial brand name," said John Pottow, a University of Michigan Law School professor who specializes in bankruptcy. "It's quite conceivable that they can sell the name and recipe for Twinkies to a company that wants to make them." That said, analysts predict it will take as long as six months to sell the company.
 

Rumblings are that Georgia-based Flowers Foods and private equity food investment firm Metropoulos & Company are looking at Hostess or at least parts of it. In a note to investors, analyst William Chappell Jr. indicated, “We believe there may be some specific Hostess assets that Flowers could buy to both expand its geographic reach and fill in its existing territory.”
 

Hostess spokesman Lance Ignon felt optimistic about the brand. "We think there's a lot of value in the brands, and we'll certainly be trying to maximize value, both of the brands and the physical assets," said Ignon.
 

Is your brand safe? Can you endure the rising labor costs, healthcare costs and government regulations of a 2013 economy? Will your brand survive the changing tastes of today’s finicky consumers? Hostess’ demise offers some sobering food for thought.
 

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.com