Stores are seeing the return of the well-known Twinkies snack cakes Monday, under a new ownership after being out of stores for eight months. Private firms Apollo Global Management and C. Dean Metropoulous & Co. partnered and bought the brand for $410 million.
The original company, Hostess, was having financial issues causing them to declare bankruptcy and shut down in November. The new owners also bought the ownership of a few other Hostess snacks, including Ho Hos, Ding Dongs, and CupCakes.
Schiller Park bakery, the original bakery that owned Hostess, is still making the snacks, but are employing far less people than they used to employ. In three months when the company expects to be fully staffed, they plan on having about 1,800 employees in the U.S. In the past they had ten times that, and the new ownership is causing many job losses.
According to Fox Business, a few changes have been made to Twinkies, including a shelf life that is about three weeks longer than it used to be, the possibility of new flavors, bite-sized snacks, or lower-calorie options.
The new company plans to go on a marketing spree to get the spongy yellow cakes to their full potential. Chicago Tribune reports that the owners want to sell Twinkies in many more places than they used to be sold, including anywhere that candy bars are sold.
"We want to capitalize on the nostalgia of the brand,” said Hostess President Richard Seban. “But we also want to make sure we're relevant to this generation and not just the generations of the past," he says in relation to their new marketing techniques, including a strong presence in social media and the launch of a new website.
image: Facebook