Will Mexico save the Twinkie?
Will the beloved Twinkie company be pushed south of the border?
Mexican bread company Grupo Bimbo just might be the Twinkie’s last hope.
As the largest bread baking firm in the world, Bimbo has already consumed parts of Sara Lee, Entenmann’s, and Thomas English Muffins. Not so English anymore, eh?
A few years back Bimbo put in a $580 million bid for Twinkie’s parent company, Hostess, Forbes reported. The bid was thought by many to be low at the time. But now, as the company announced it will be closing its doors, the brand could go for about $135 million, the Christian Science Monitor estimates.
Bimbo’s access to low Mexican sugar prices may help save the brand. Hostess reportedly struggled to stay afloat with high American tariffs on sugar. Cheaper manufacturing jobs, in conjunction with a lower sugar price-point, may pull Twinkies south of the border, according to The Huffington Post.
On Monday afternoon, Hostess Brands Inc. agreed to enter private talks between their lenders and union leaders, in order to avoid the imminent liquidation of the company. But a deal remains to be made. Gregory Rayburn, the CEO of Hostess, also said in an interview on Monday that Bimbo would be an unlikely buyer of the company because of anti-trust laws.
“It would never happen,” Rayburn said, citing Bimbo’s agreement with the U.S. government to sell portions of Sara Lee to avoid monopoly of the North American baked goods market.
While some still argue that Mexico’s Bimbo has the best chance of taking the iconic brand, other likely buyers include the parent American parent company of Nature Valley granola, Flowers Food, or Little Debbie’s mother, McKee Foods — both of which have expressed interest, according to CSM.
As rumors circulate, some wonder if the brand could ever be the same in Mexico. ‘Twinkito’ does have a nice ring to it, though.
(Credit: HoustonPress/Photo-Dictionary.Com)
