Business

OMG, no Twinkies till September?!

Hold on America, the beloved Twinkies snack cakes will not be returning to store shelves until Labor Day — at the earliest.

While bankrupt Hostess Brands is expected to select a preferred bidder for its snacks business today, regulatory approval, time needed to close the deal and then the firing up of the Twinkies manufacturing process means it’ll be early September before the spongecake treats are available at retailers, experts said.

Leon Black’s Apollo Global Management and co-bidder C. Dean Metropoulos, a veteran food exec, are expected to be named the preferred bidder for Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Donettes and other Hostess snacks.

If they survive a likely late-March bankruptcy auction and become the winning bidder, the deal will still not close until July or August, a hedge fund manager said.

That is partly because of the time needed to get regulatory approval.

Then, Apollo would need one to two months to get the business up and running and the trucks rolling should Apollo outsource the baking.

Add another 30 days if it were to restart a Hostess bakery, a former Hostess worker said.

That translates to a September return for Twinkies.

Meanwhile, Mexican baker Grupo Bimbo which had been competing, and still could compete, for the snack brands, is preparing to launch a snack-cake line for its Sara Lee brand to take advantage of Twinkies’ absence, the source said.

Bimbo did not return calls.