Walmart is looking to lasso Twinkie the Kid.
The largest US discounter and other gigantic retail chains are among a pack of emerging bidders for some of the much-loved brand names to be auctioned off by bankrupt baker Hostess Brands, according to a report yesterday.
The maker of Wonder Bread, Twinkies and Ding Dongs — which last month closed its plants and laid off most of its 18,000 workers — has attracted a bevy of would-be breadwinners betting that America’s love affair with junk food isn’t over yet.
Walmart had been Hostess’s biggest customer, accounting for 40 percent of the baker’s production of Ho Hos, Suzy-Qs, Fruit Pies and Sno-Balls, among other sugary snack cakes.
If Walmart wins the Bankruptcy Court auction for the Twinkies brand — or any other Hostess asset — it could mean that the snack foods would be available in the US only in the 4,479 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores.
Walmart over the years has acquired numerous defunct labels, such as White Cloud toilet paper, which it snatched up after Procter & Gamble failed to renew its trademark.
Walmart declined comment.
Hostess, liquidating after management and unions failed to reach a labor deal with its bakers union, has received interest from about two dozen bidders in the first round of a bankruptcy auction, according to Bloomberg News, which cited unnamed sources and first reported on the Walmart bid.
Also ogling Hostess brands is grocery store giant Kroger, which has 3,226 groceries and convenience stores in the US.
“A few of the bids are for all the assets, some are for just the cakes or breads businesses, and others are interested in individual Hostess plants or products,” according to the report.
The report said other bidders include Mexican baking giant Grupo Bimbo as well as Alpha Bakers.
While a shift toward healthier eating habits among consumers helped push Hostess into insolvency, the cake maker was also scrambling to recover from years of mismanagement.
Hostess entered its latest bankruptcy in January, despite the fact it had emerged from a previous bankruptcy in 2009 under the ownership of buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings.
Now, Walmart is in the hunt for Hostess despite the fact that the mega-discounter earlier this month had weighed abruptly replacing the brand in order to avoid empty shelves, sources told The Post earlier this month.