Twinkie killed to save Big Bird

[_Gadianton]

Has anyone tried Little Debbie "Cloud Cakes" yet? It looks like LD has a full lineup resembling the Hostess lineup. I bought a box of these today to try. I was hoping they were Twinkies repackaged, though wary, because the packaging is budget-looking, like from the 1950s. After tasting, they aren't quite Twinkies, in my opinion. The shape is different, they have a somewhat triangular theme as opposed to the sculpted rounding of a classic Twinkie. The golden spongecake tastes about the same as a Twinkie, but to me the filling was sparse, and more lard-like as opposed to the lighter whipped texture I remember from the Twinkie. But still not bad, and I will finish the box and possibly buy more in the future. I do hope competative innovation will find its way into the picture though.

The Cloud Cake appears relatively healthy. A popular diet brand also offers a similar Twinkie knock-off, but for the net food in the package, you are paying around three times as much. I calculated the calories/ounce to be slightly higher for the diet brand, each spongecake is just drastically smaller. The diet brand does boast 3 grams of fiber per serving, the Cloud Cake zero, but for the cost savings, one could cut the Cloud Cake in half (saving a portion for later), and buy a box of strawberries or rasberries to consume with it for better net nutrition.

[_cinepro]

Twinkies are on their way back:

New Twinkie Maker Shuns Union Labor

The company that bought the Twinkie, HoHo and Ding Dong brands out of bankruptcy is gearing up to reopen plants and hire workers, but it won't be using union labor.


Hostess Brands LLC—Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC's APO +4.00% new incarnation of the baking company that liquidated in Chapter 11—is reopening four bakeries in the next eight to 10 weeks, aiming to get Twinkie-deprived consumers the classic snack cake starting in July.


Chief Executive C. Dean Metropoulos said the company will pump $60 million in capital investments into the plants between now and September and aims to hire at least 1,500 workers. But they won't be represented by unions, including the one whose nationwide strike sparked the 86-year-old company's decision to shut down in November.

"We do not expect to be involved in the union going forward," Mr. Metropoulos said in an interview Wednesday.

Hostess Brands Inc., the company that filed for bankruptcy protection in January 2012 and eventually sold off its brands and plants to several buyers, was once powered by 19,000 workers, 15,000 of whom were represented by unions. The company's largest union, the Teamsters, had agreed to a new labor contract following a contentious bankruptcy trial. But the second-largest union, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers & Grain Millers International Union, launched a work stoppage after the company imposed new labor terms on the union's members. Hostess said the strike crippled its operations, forcing it to shut down.

A Teamsters spokeswoman declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the bakers union couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 60262.html