cookiesinheaven

unlike it's ubiquitous product, Twinkies. Hedge Fund owned Hostess filed for bankruptcy earlier...and now it says it will shutter it's factories.

Hostess Brands says it is going out of business, closing plants that make Twinkies and Wonder Bread and laying off all of its 18,500 workers - Salt Lake Tribune

So...while workers are struggling to survive as their livelihood is shuttered, the Silver Point Hedge Fund CEO, Edward A. Mulé, is basking in luxury in his 15,045-square-foot Connecticut residence (pdf) and the CEO of Hostess itself is sucking some financial juiciness out of the company while the workers are paid crumbs.

Rayburn announced that the pay of the four top executives would go down to $1 for the year, but that their full salaries would be reinstated no later than Jan. 1. Hostess pays Rayburn $125,000 a month, according to court filings. At the same time Rayburn became CEO, Gephardt's son Matthew, 41, the COO of the Gephardt Group, was put on the Hostess board as a $100,000-a-year independent director. - CNN Money

Labels: bankruptcy, Hostess, snack foods, Twinkies

Labels: bankruptcy, burgers, closings, Fast Food, Restaurant

Labels: bankruptcy, Crocs, Mario, shoes

The venerable but financially beleaguered Niman Ranch, famous for selling high-quality natural meats since being founded in the early 1970s by Bill Niman (who left the firm in 2007), was forced this week to merge with Natural Foods Holdings, a division of the Chicago-based equity company that is Niman’s largest investor. According to the San Francisco Business Times, Niman CEO Jeff Swain said in a letter to shareholders that the Bay Area company was in default on loans, owed key vendors money, and was facing a decline in sales.

Swain told shareholders that Niman had been unable to secure additional credit and that without merging it did not have the funds to continue operations past the end of this month. - Gourmet

Labels: bankruptcy, farmers, Financial, Food

On Thursday, Kellogg Co. closed on a $12.1 million deal to acquire the recipes and trademark of Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., former sister company of Archway Cookies.

Mother's Cake & Cookie Co., which manufactures iced animal crackers, sandwich cookies and wire cut cookies, has a devoted customer base in California and the western United States.

...Also bidding on the bankrupt cookie companies Wednesday was Charlotte, N.C.-based snack manufacturer Lance, Inc., which won a bid to buy almost all of Archway's assets for about $30 million.

Lance also placed an undisclosed bid to acquire Mother's Cake and Cookie Co., but lost to Kellogg. - Battle Creek Enquirer 

Labels: bankruptcy, Cookies, corporations

Labels: bakery, bankruptcy

Mother's Cookies, an Oakland institution for 92 years, has been shuttered, its owner seeking bankruptcy protection for the company.

The ending was abrupt: Workers for the company, which shifted its baking and distribution operations to plants in Ohio and Canada in 2006, told workers Friday that operations would cease and cookies would no longer be made as of Monday.

The company cited rising prices for raw materials and fuel, and on Monday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.- SFGate

Washington Mutual implodes? Times are tough. Lehman Brothers is gone? Time for some belt tightening. But Mother’s Cookies? This, my friends, is a tragedy.- SFFoodie

Labels: bankruptcy, Cookies

Labels: bankruptcy, business, Chocolate Chip, Cookies, Mrs. Field's

Interstate Bakeries Corp. said today its Wonder bread brand would disappear from Southern California grocery stores after it shuts down bread baking operations in the region Oct. 29.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate said it planned to close all four of its Southland bread bakeries, located in Glendale, Pomona, San Diego and in Los Angeles southeast of USC. The company will also close 17 distribution centers and 16 outlet stores.

In all, about 1,300 jobs will be eliminated.

Wonder bread was first marketed more than 80 years ago and has been sold in Southern California since at least the 1940s, the spokeswoman said. Interstate acquired the brand when it bought Continental Baking Co. from Ralston Purina Co. in 1995 for $461 million in stock and cash. - Latte Times

Labels: bankruptcy, Bread, Food History