Hostess Filing For Bankruptcy. Good Bye Twinkies?

Hostess Brands, the company that makes your favorite Twinkies, Ho-Ho’s and Donettes is preparing to file bankruptcy for the second time in under a decade. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Hostess Brands Inc. is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection as soon as this week.

The Texas-based company carries more than $860 million in debt and is being pinched as a result of high labor costs as well as the rising costs of sugar, flour and their other ingredients. As mentioned earlier, Hostess, once called Interstate Bakeries Corp., faced a four-year period in bankruptcy court back in 2004, struggling to emerge out of bankruptcy in February of 2009.

Sales of Twinkies have been in a recent decline, maybe in a time when more brands are reformulating recipes and offering new, healthier, flashier baked-good alternatives, Hostess brands haven’t been making very substantial changes to their long standing products.

Will Twinkies be gone forever?

Only time will tell. The company hopes that the new bankruptcy proceedings will attract new capital to bring production and distribution operations up to date, according to someone close to the company.

Better question, will you miss Twinkies and Ho-Ho’s if they’re gone?!