Grupo Bimbo, the biggest baker in America, is working quickly to launch knock-off Hostess products before Twinkies and other snack brands come back to market, The Post has learned.
Bimbo has told Teamsters locals it wants them to carry “a newly introduced snack cake product line to fill the Hostess void,” a source close to the situation said.
The six to eight snacks will include a Hostess-like cupcake and a Hostess-like Twinkie, a second source said.
Hostess shut down in November, and the new owners that bought its assets out of bankruptcy will likely be re-introducing its snack cakes in the fall, according to sources.
Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management bought Hostess’ snacks business, and Little Debbie’s maker McKee Foods acquired Drake’s.
Bimbo has been weighing such a snack-aisle attack under its Sara Lee brand for months but, sources noted, waited to see if it could first buy any of the shuttered Hostess brands instead.
“I’m hearing Bimbo wants to get [the new products] to market within the next month or two,” said Richard Sheehan, president of New York Teamsters Local 802.
Sheehan said there are 260 New York and Northern New Jersey Teamsters drivers for Entenmann’s cake and that he expects within a few weeks to begin negotiations with Bimbo.
Bimbo, which also owns the Entenmann’s and Stroehmann brands — and has two groups of drivers, one for each of the brands — needs the union OK before giving drivers new product.
The Mexico-based baker will likely be offering commissions on the Hostess knock-off products that are up to one-third less than what New York-area drivers make for delivering Entenmann’s cakes.
Roughly 40 Midwest Teamsters locals in the last several days voted in favor of a deal to carry the new products for a 6 percent commission if they fully service the account, or 3 percent if they just drop them off, Sheehan said.
A deal with us “is not going to happen in that area. That I can tell you,” Sheehan said, talking about the commission rate.
Bimbo’s Entenmann’s drivers in New York — the regional brand does not have much presence in the Midwest — have seen business take off since Hostess shut down.
“Some drivers have doubled their business,” Sheehan said.
An average route driver who was selling $15,000 a week is now generating $23,000, he said.
These drivers work 50-hour weeks and can earn up to $100,000 a year with benefits, Sheehan said.
One Entenmann’s driver, speaking of the offer from Bimbo to carry the new product, told The Post he believes he is in a no-win position.
If the lower-commission deal is accepted, Bimbo may force him to carry so much new product that it would eat into his pay.
If the Teamsters reject the deal, the driver said his colleagues fear Bimbo will create a third group of drivers, specifically for the Sara Lee brand, which will compete against them.
However, the driver believes a deal will be reached.
Bimbo declined comment.