Leading snack food maker survives Chapter 11 bankruptcy
As Hostess proved in both 2004 and 2012, it's possible for Twinkie the Kid to ride again even after a bankruptcy filing.
Now, in 2025, it seems hard to imagine that a world might have existed without Twinkie the Kid, Fruit Pie the Magician, Captain Cupcake, and of course, King Dong the Ding Dong.
That reality, however, nearly came to pass with the company's second bankruptcy, a Nov. 2012 filing. The company even went as far as to share an order from the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, approving its emergency interim motion for the orderly wind down of its business and sale of its assets.
Related: Iconic ice cream chain unexpectedly closing locations
It was a slow, painful process that could have ended in disaster for Twinkies and other iconic treats.
"The wind down was necessitated by an inflated cost structure that put the Company at a profound competitive disadvantage. The biggest component of the Company's costs was its collective bargaining agreements that covered 15,000 of 18,500 employees," it shared at the time.
Snack cake companies, it turns out, use real workers and not Oompa Loompas or magic elves to make their products, and that was a drag on profits.
