Twinkies maker bankruptcy and lessons learned

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Twinkies maker files for bankruptcy states that Hostess Brands Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

In bankruptcy, the company plans to continue negotiating with 12 unions to modify the collective-bargaining agreements for its union workers, who comprise 83% of its approximately 19,000 employees.

Twinkies have declined a bit recently in sales while the overall bakery-snacks category has been about flat.  The article noted that nearly 36 million packages of Twinkies were sold in the year ended Dec. 25, down almost 2% from a year earlier, where this data captures sales from their outlets, excluding sales from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and club stores.

Prices have been kept prices relatively high, making it harder to charge even more as costs for ingredients and fuel rose.  The company grew in the 1960s and 1970s by acquiring several other baking outfits across the U.S. By 1995, the company had changed its name to IBC.  It also purchased its largest rival, Continental Baking Co., maker of Wonder Bread, for $330 million.

What can organizations do to avoid the type of problems that Hostess Brands has experienced?   Organizations need to have a structured business management system that assesses risk through the blending of predictive scorecards with analytically/innovatively determined strategies so that business improvement efforts are made so that the business as a whole benefits – before the organization has major issues.  Integrated Enterprise Excellence (IEE) provides such as system as described in a free e-book available from the homepage of Smarter Solutions .