Milling & Baking News - May 15, 2012 - 1

THE NEWS WEEKLY OF GRAIN-BASED FOODS MAY 15, 2012

bakingbusiness.com / foodbusinessnews.net

TRANSPORTATION AND DISTRIBUTION

Hostess warns of liquidation and possible layoffs
IRVING, TEXAS — Hostess Brands, Inc. last week issued several notices under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notiﬁcation Act (WARN) alerting all 18,000 of its employees across the United States that it may have to shut down and liquidate its business in as soon as 60 days if certain conditions transpire as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Hostess said that while its primary focus is to complete its restructuring and emerge from Chapter 11 as a viable company, “it is possible that, despite our best efforts, certain events may occur that would require Hostess to sell all or portions of its business and/or wind down its operations and liquidate.” Hostess outlined several events that may occur, including: • The board of directors authorizes, or seeks court authorization for, the pursuit of a sale of all or a substantial portion of all of Hostess’ assets; • The board of directors authorizes, or seeks court authorization for, Hostess to stop pursuing the restructuring of its business; • More than 20% of Hostess’ aggregate workforce is laid off after Jan. 11, 2012; • Hostess receives an unsatisfactory resolution of its pending motion before the bankruptcy court regarding certain
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Peaking fuel prices push grain, freight shipping costs higher
Story on Page 20

LATE NEWS

Survey shows biotech wheat interest
WASHINGTON — A majority of consumers likely would purchase bread, crackers, cookies, cereals or pasta made with ﬂour from wheat that had been modiﬁed by biotechnology to use less land, water and/or pesticides, according to the International Food Information Council’s 2012 “Consumer perceptions of food technology” survey. Forty-two per cent said they would be somewhat likely to buy the products, which compared with 47% in a 2010 survey, and 28% said they would be very likely, which compared with 26% in 2010. Cogent
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CSM plans to divest bakery supplies businesses
DIEMEN, THE NETHERLANDS — CSM N.V. plans to divest its North American and European Bakery Supplies businesses and transform into a bio-based ingredients company with focus on its Purac and Caravan Ingredients businesses, Diemen-based CSM said May 7. A strategic review found CSM in the future would not be able to support the investment requirements of both bakery supplies and bio-based ingredients, Gerard Hoetmer, chief executive ofﬁcer of CSM, said in a May 7 conference call. “We have made the decisive choice to focus on the high growth, value-based industries, with different capabilities in Purac and Caravan Ingredients,” he said. “As a result, we concluded that our bakery supplies assets will be more valuable in the hands of other owners, who can participate in the consolidation we expect to happen. “So this transformation is, in effect, re-deploying capital from lower growth bakery supplies into higher growth biobased ingredients activities, with more
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Marking nine decades in partnership with grain-based foods
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Milling & Baking News - May 15, 2012

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