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It’s a sweet deal for Hostess, which also spreads the peanut butter and jelly empire of J.M. Smucker: The storied maker of Twinkies, Ho-Hos, Ding Dongs, Zingers and other long-lasting sugary treats is being bought by the leading snacking conglomerate. 

 — a huge scoop for Hostess, which has gone through bankruptcy not once but twice in the past two decades. That included a few months when Twinkies 

Smucker had to fight to snag Hostess, prevailing over several big rivals that 

included PepsiCo, Oreo maker Mondelez International and Cheerios maker General Mills. 

Hostess — which introduced Twinkies in 1930 — first went bankrupt in 2004 (“blaming the nation’s infatuation with low-carb diets,” 

). The company re-emerged a few years later under private-equity ownership, but filed for Chapter 11 again in 

Hostess broke up into bits, and its snacking cakes business was 

. In 2016, it became a publicly traded company, under the ticker TWNK. 

In recent years, Hostess has seen its stock price more than double as people spent more on snacks thanks to hearty demand and higher prices. Sales have been 

, whetting rivals’ appetite for a takeover.

J.M. Smucker, whose brands include Jif peanut butter and Folgers coffee, shared its 

 for Hostess Brands' "strong convenience store distribution and leading innovation pipeline."  

Business and Economic News

Lifestyle

Food and Drink

Alina Selyukh

Author

For Hostess, the deal with the peanut-butter-and-jelly conglomerate is a sweet win after not one, but two bankruptcies.

Twinkies are sold! J.M. Smucker scoops up Hostess Brands for $5.6 billion

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