Twinkies coming back--with less union baggage

A familiar product is coming to a store near you.  And some stores where you couldn't find it.

From the Wall Street Journal:

As more than 50 million Twinkies start making their way to stores next week, the first order of business for the 83-year-old brand's new owner is to let customers know a classic is back.

But behind the return of the familiar cream-filled sponge cake is a leaner operation, free of the union contracts and the $1.3 billion in debt that saddled the brand's previous owners. With that clean slate, the new owner and chief executive, C. Dean Metropoulos, plans to launch an ambitious growth plan and avoid the problems that led to two Chapter 11 bankruptcies, the last of which ended in liquidation.

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The previous distribution system involved roughly 6,000 drivers—all with union wages and pension benefits— delivering products to stores and placing them on shelves. The old Hostess distribution was governed by complicated work rules that required drivers to deliver bread and cakes on separate trucks, adding costs. Those delivery routes also reached only 50,000 of the country's roughly 150,000 convenience stores, and left some pockets around the country entirely without Twinkies.

Now Mr. Metropoulos is using third-party drivers to deliver products to retailers' warehouses, which he said will enable big expansion. He expects to reach a total of about 110,000 convenience stores by year-end—and to start reaching dollar stores, club stores, drug stores and vending machines, where its products previously were absent.

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