Hostess Foods, the maker of the iconic snack foods known as Twinkies, Wonder Bread and Sno-Balls, are shutting their doors for good .
The longtime baked goods giant announced Friday that is was asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to shut down all operations due to a strike by bakers protesting a new contract that proposed wage and benefit cuts for thousands of its bakery employees.
Hostess' closing of its 33 bakeries, 570 outlet stores and 565 distribution centers nationwide will put nearly 18,500 out of work, CNN Money reported.
The company, which has about $2.5 billion in sales, had suspended operations in order to start liquidating assets.
"We'll be selling the brands and as much of the infrastructure as we can," company spokesman Lance Ignon told the Chicago Tribune via Reuters. "There is value in the brands."
The company places the blame on the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, which represents roughly 5,000 Hostess employees, after they launched a nationwide strike that the company says "crippled" their ability to produce and deliver its products.
Negotiations between Hostess and the union broke down in September, the company writes, when the union rejected a final labor offer from Hostess.
After the company lost $340 million last year due to the economic downturn, the company began negotiating with its unions to save money by getting their workers to agree to paycuts.
"Hostess Brands is unprofitable under its current cost structure, much of which is determined by union wages and pension costs," the company's statement reads. "The offer to the [union] included wage, benefit and work rule concessions but also gave Hostess Brands' 12 unions a 25 percent ownership stake in the company, representation on its Board of Directors and $100 million in reorganized Hostess Brands' debt."
The company had announced earlier this week that if workers had not returned to work by 5 p.m. Thursday, it would be forced to liquidate all assets. By Thursday, company officials determined that "an insufficient number of employees had returned to work to enable the restoration of normal operations," the statement on the company's web site reads.
"We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," said Gregory F. Rayburn, chief executive officer. "Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders."
However, union workers say that if Hostess is low on funds, it should find other ways to make money.
"We're not just some greedy union workers, man," union worker Steven Metcalf told CBS This Morning from Los Angeles. "We all have families out here risking mortages, car payments, everything."
Hostess says it plans to sell its popular brands, including Hostess, Drakes and Dolly Madison, which make iconic cake products such as Twinkies, CupCakes, Ding Dongs, Ho Ho's, Sno Balls and Donettes. Bread brands to be sold include Wonder, Nature's Pride , Merita, Home Pride, Butternut, and Beefsteak, among others.
Twinkies, perhaps their most famous product, have been a staple of pop culture in the U.S. for decades. In fact, the popular snack food was also featured in the 2009 cult hit "Zombieland," during which co-star Woody Harrelson's character, Tallahassee , constantly seeks Twinkies as a running gag set in the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic zombie-infested U.S.