Twinkies Out of Business? Hostess Filing for Bankruptcy; Twinkies Rights Might Have Buyers in Mexican Bakery, Other Companies

Days after declaring that they were closing their doors, Hostess Brands Inc.,-the maker of Twinkies-are due to appear in a White Plains court Monday to liquidate their assets.

However, despite this news, fans of the iconic Twinkies snacks have hope that even after the company's demise, Twinkies may yet survive.

Hostess, the 82 year-old company with roughly $2.5 billion in sales and one of the largest wholesale bakers and distributors of breads and snack cakes in the nation, filed for bankruptcy early Friday morning following failures to negotiate with its union workers over wage cuts.

Federal Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain is set Monday to consider Hostess's request to close its distribution centers and 36 bakeries, Bloomberg News reported.

"We'll be selling the brands and as much of the infrastructure as we can," company spokesman Lance Ignon told Reuters. "There is value in the brands. But some bakeries will never open again as bakeries."

The company delivered the last of its baked goods Friday.

Sally Greenberg, executive director of the Washington-based National Consumers League, accused Hostess executives in a statement of "scapegoating" the union, "rather than take responsibility themselves."

While Hostess blamed the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union for crippling the company by going on strike on Nov. 9, union workers argued that they had already made several concessions to Hostess in previous years. Furthermore, the union says the company had failed to invest in brand marketing and modernization of plants and trucks and had focused instead on enriching owners such as private equity firm Ripplewood Holdings and hedge funds Silver Point Capital and Monarch Alternative Capital.

Officials at the three firms declined to comment to Reuters.

"Our members decided... they were not going to agree to another round of outrageous wage and benefit cuts and give up their pension only to see yet another management team fail and Wall Street vulture capitalists and 'restructuring specialists' walk away with untold millions of dollars," union President Frank Hurt said.

However, there is a chance that in spite of the company's closing-which sparked a nationwide run on Twinkies and other Hostess products in supermarkets and convenience stores this past weekend-Twinkies might still be made.

Rumors has surfaced this past weekend that Daniel Servitje Montull, a Mexican billionaire worth $4 billion whose family owns Grupo Bimbo, the world's largest bread maker, could purchase the rights to make several of the Hostess goods, including Twinkies, according to Forbes.com.

Con Agra, Pepperidge Farms and Flowers Foods are other companies that have expressed interest in Hostess, but Montull's company-which has monitored the bankruptcy proceedings of Hostess closely-may have an edge, the Christian Science Monitor reported this weekend.

"I think we'll find buyers," Hostess CEO Gregory F. Rayburn told ABC News on Sunday. "A few have surfaced already since Friday expressing interest in the brand to acquire them."