Twilight for Twinkies? Hostess Workers Strike as Company Struggles

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oldcelt said:
If it is still possible for Hostess to be profitable, the workers may be the ones to but the assets. It has happened before.
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It’s not possible to be profitable. That’s why they shut down. I’m not sure what there is about this that some people don’t understand. This can happen.

Sometimes in business, there comes a point where a decision has to be made. It’s either keep going and lose everything (and sometimes more than that) to save face (paradoxically), or declare bankruptcy and at least salvage the furniture before you get that taken away from you too.

I have known several people in small businesses who went on, basically misleading themselves for emotional reasons, paying Peter to pay Paul with longer and longer wait times, until the sheriff shows up at the door and impounds everything, because it’s finally turned into fraud. That can happen too. And it’s wrong when that happens. You stop before it gets to that point if you have any sense at all.

Running a business isn’t an easy thing, and it can become impossible if you have too many headwinds. If they couldn’t keep it going right, they did the correct thing, going to bankruptcy court.
 
iloveangels said:
It’s not possible to be profitable. That’s why they shut down. I’m not sure what there is about this that some people don’t understand. This can happen.
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Actually to be technically correct, it is more accurate to say that this management cannot run the company and make a profit. A new management may come in and buy the assets and yet make a profit, time will tell.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
Actually to be technically correct, it is more accurate to say that this management cannot run the company and make a profit. A new management may come in and buy the assets and yet make a profit, time will tell.
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What they’ll probably do is sell all the assets which include the machinery, the recipes, the brand names, the packaging, the routes and so on. Some other company or group of companies will come in and buy that and replicate it as one or more new businesses. They won’t probably do any research or anything like that, they’ll just make and sell the product (or products). That’s how it usually turns out.

The products will almost certainly get produced someplace by someone IF demand enough still exists for them and if the things needed to do it are clear of legal impediments. That doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to find them just like you did before though, because even as we type, this company’s display position and market share across the country is crashing. It’s a huge deal to get shelf space in a store, particularly a chain supermarket, and even in some gas stations.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
Actually to be technically correct, it is more accurate to say that this management cannot run the company and make a profit. A new management may come in and buy the assets and yet make a profit, time will tell.
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Sure, if they can buy the producing assets cheaply enough and can get control over other costs. You probably know the price of wheat has risen a lot in the last few years, and no management can control product (name removed by moderator)uts forever. Labor unions that continously fight productivity improvements are also difficult to manage.

If you look at the company’s products like Wonder Bread, as well as the iconic snack foods, it appears that their target market was children. Unfortunately, 50,000,000 of their target customers and their potential children are not available to buy those products because of abortion. Unions have been heavy supporters of the party of de-population.

Killing your potential customers is not a good strategy for sustainable jobs.
 
Trader said:
Sure, if they can buy the producing assets cheaply enough and can get control over other costs. You probably know the price of wheat has risen a lot in the last few years, and no management can control product (name removed by moderator)uts forever. Labor unions that continously fight productivity improvements are also difficult to manage.

If you look at the company’s products like Wonder Bread, as well as the iconic snack foods, it appears that their target market was children. Unfortunately, 50,000,000 of their target customers and their potential children are not available to buy those products because of abortion. Unions have been heavy supporters of the party of de-population.

Killing your potential customers is not a good strategy for sustainable jobs.
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All examples of headwinds, yes. Demand is probably down for a whole slew of reasons including this very pertinent reason that Trader cites. These cakes are indeed lunchbox foods for children and teenagers.

Another factor? The degree of skilled labor required. Most of these jobs are not jobs that require a high degree of technical or intellectual skill. High pay is not sustainable under these conditions because the price of the product is limited to what the value of the product is on the market. It’s a cake, baked by a specialty guy with a few years training, or delivered by a truck driver who can move on to another company next week. $1.19 on the shelf. You can’t play big time union hardball for a $1.19 product and expect it not to end in disaster. REALITY CHECK.

Pressing a strike right now, in this economic environment, under all these conditions, was a very stupid thing to do.
 
torch621 said:
You’re a perfect example of the “unions are always right” attitude that I despise entirely. So you don’t mind 18,500 workers losing their jobs because the union can’t take a pay cut in order to help keep the company afloat? Yeah, getting paid less and losing some benefits sucks, but you know what sucks even more? Not having a job at all.

It’s a shame that you would rather slander me as an enemy of workers rather than consider that simple fact, or the simple fact that unions can be wrong. Like a typical leftist does; dont’ like welfare dependence? You hate poor people. Criticize a union for threatening to drive a company out of business and thereby stabbing it’s members in the back? You hate workers. I’ve heard this song and dance before, and it is and always will be a load of ****.

I pray you get some perspective, sir.
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Knowing a little bit about manufacturing
I would suspect the labor. Portion of costs are minimal.
typical of capital intensive industries.
The costs of product like flower sugar ditribution
non laborious salaries have a bigger impact
The results of a 20percent wage cut on 10 percent of your costs doesn’t impact business near as much as you think.
How many on the payroll are actually envolved in labor.
I would have to review this company
numbers to tell you why they are were they are.
 
gus said:
Knowing a little bit about manufacturing
I would suspect the labor. Portion of costs are minimal.
typical of capital intensive industries.
The costs of product like flower sugar ditribution
non laborious salaries have a bigger impact
The results of a 20percent wage cut on 10 percent of your costs doesn’t impact business near as much as you think.
How many on the payroll are actually envolved in labor.
I would have to review this company
numbers to tell you why they are were they are.
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Yes, in most products labor is far and away the largest cost that goes into the product. If labor costs get out of hand, it’s over.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
Actually to be technically correct, it is more accurate to say that this management cannot run the company and make a profit. A new management may come in and buy the assets and yet make a profit, time will tell.
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If there is a demand for Hostess products, there should be some entity willing to do this.
 
ProVobis said:
If there is a demand for Hostess products, there should be some entity willing to do this.
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My guess is that someone will buy the trademarks and formulas and then lisence them to regional bakers that have spare capacity. Hostess as a nationwide entitiy is probably done permanently.
 
Trader said:
My guess is that someone will buy the trademarks and formulas and then lisence them to regional bakers that have spare capacity. Hostess as a nationwide entitiy is probably done permanently.
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I think Fannie Mae candies went through a similar path. With much less advertising afterwards.
 
gus said:
Knowing a little bit about manufacturing
I would suspect the labor. Portion of costs are minimal.
typical of capital intensive industries.
The costs of product like flower sugar distribution
non laborious salaries have a bigger impact
The results of a 20percent wage cut on 10 percent of your costs doesn’t impact business near as much as you think.
How many on the payroll are actually involved in labor.
I would have to review this company
numbers to tell you why they are were they are.
Click to expand...
I turned to “How It’s Made” and they had a video of snack cakes being manufactured. The whole thing is robotic – it looks like the only role for humans is to receive ingredients as they arrive and pour them into mixing vats and then remove the finished product & prepare it for shipping at the other end.

As for the workers I don’t blame them. If you rob me at gunpoint a couple times I might finally just get sick of it and say “Go ahead of shoot.”
Economists like to pretend that people are rational actors who decide things based on opportunity costs and suchlike.
Real live humans are more likely to say, “Screw me? Well, screw you!!”
 
meltzerboy said:
I must admit I never ate a Twinkie in my life, even as a kid. Now, Drake’s Hostess cupcakes were another story.
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The price of Hostess cupcakes were my gauge of the inflation rate.

Now I have no way of knowing. 😦
 
Other than when they put out banana flavored Twinkies I’ve only eaten maybe two regular Twinkies in my life. I LOVE Hostess donettes. I have a bag of them next to me. I’m going to miss my favorite little powdered donuts.
 
ProVobis said:
The price of Hostess cupcakes were my gauge of the inflation rate.

Now I have no way of knowing. 😦
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You’ll just have to pick some other over-priced symbol of the 70s with union thugs in charge, ProVobis. Getting hard to find, aren’t they?
 
iloveangels said:
Just before they go get in the unemployment line.
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and then we ALL get to support them through food stamps and welfare-boy, that will show those union thugs won’t it?

I don’t understand this animosity towards workers when there are plenty of Church documents-including the Bible-that have a lot to say about the sin of treating workers unfairly to get richer.

Make as much money as you want, just don’t crush people on your way there. Just because a person works in a factory it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve a decent life. Fair wages, decent working hours and the pensions that the company promised them aren’t unreasonable demands.
 
didymus said:
…
Real live humans are more likely to say, “Screw me? Well, screw you!!”
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Anybody stupid enough to say that to their boss, not only is probably going to end up in the employment line, but they deserve to end up in the employment line. That’s a fact.
Seeker1961 said:
and then we ALL get to support them through food stamps and welfare-boy, that will show those union thugs won’t it?

I don’t understand this animosity towards workers when there are plenty of Church documents-including the Bible-that have a lot to say about the sin of treating workers unfairly to get richer.

Make as much money as you want, just don’t crush people on your way there. Just because a person works in a factory it doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve a decent life. Fair wages, decent working hours and the pensions that the company promised them aren’t unreasonable demands.
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Whatever. All that and $1.50 will get you a nice cup of coffee.
 
iloveangels said:
Anybody stupid enough to say that to their boss, not only is probably going to end up in the employment line, but they deserve to end up in the employment line. That’s a fact.

Whatever. All that and $1.50 will get you a nice cup of coffee.
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Now that’s a well thought out answer to some very reasonable points.

John
 
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