While a federal bankruptcy judge allowed Hostess to liquidate its brands last week, retailers and competitors were scrambling to fill the void on the shelves.
The fact that Hostess products like Twinkies and Ding Dongs have vanished from stores means other baked-goods manufacturers are cooking up big expansion plans.
The prize for other snack-food makers is prime real estate inside the supermarkets and bodegas in the metro area. Location is the lifeblood of these discretionary purchases in supermarket aisles, and many Hostess Brands products had been living on the store equivalent of Fifth Avenue.
Because of Hostess’ prominence in the hearts of many Americans, the company’s goods were often positioned prominently at the ends of aisles, which are called “end cap” positions in the industry’s lingo.
John Meyer, regional manager in New York City and Long Island for McKee Foods, which owns the Little Debbie brand of cakes, says his company has already seen increased demand. This could move its goods into end caps at retailers where they’ve been hanging in the aisle.
“A number of distributors have already hired part-time help, they’ve put second trucks on the road, they’re trying to get additional service so that we can satisfy as much as we physically can,” says Meyer. Some of Little Debbie’s best-known products are Cloud Cakes, Chocolate Cupcakes and Swiss Rolls — all of which went head-to-head with what Hostess was selling.
Hostess’ demise, says Meyer, has in certain stores “given us the opportunity to take an end cap position.”
In New York, where independent and franchise grocery stores are common, managers are doling out the real estate themselves.
Joe Estrada, manager at the Associated on 14th Street in Manhattan, says they’ve split the empty 4-foot space once occupied by Hostess between Table Talk pies, Lady Linda baked goods and the Little Debbie products.
“We’re spending it on the other companies that were there,” he says.
Other stores said they expanded their stock of Entenmann’s, a line of baked goods and cookies that is a New York favorite. Entenmann’s’ parent company, Grupo Bimbo, would not comment on the Hostess situation.
But some retailers are taking a bold step that customers with a sweet tooth may not like. A Met Foods store in Brooklyn ditched baked goods altogether and filled the Hostess space with shaving cream and shampoo.