Flowers Wins Bidding for Wonder
Georgia-based Flowers Foods Inc. is poised to buy the bread brands of the defunct Hostess Brands after submitting the sole bid for the properties in the wake of Hostess' much-publicized bankruptcy.
Pending approval from a U.S. bankruptcy court judge, the $360 million deal will include Wonder Bread, Butternut, Home Pride, Merita and Nature's Pride, Reuters reported. Hostess was set to auction off the brands on Thursday, but there were reportedly no other bids.
There will be an auction for the Beefsteak brand, for which Flowers bid $30 million, since Hostess received a higher bid from Mexico's Grupo Bimbo, an unnamed source told Reuters. Bimbo reportedly bid $1 million more for the Beefsteak brand, though its $31.9 million bid includes a $900,000 breakup fee.
Flowers - which agreed in January to be the "stalking horse" bidder, thus setting a floor for the bidding and a court-supervised auction - owns Nature's Own bread and Tastykake snacks, among other brands acquired over the years since its founding in 1919.
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