Today the Stalking Horse bidder for the Hostess and Dolly Madison cake brands was named.

The next step in the process of Twinkies returning to the shelves has been taken. So what is a Stalking Horse bidder?

Investopedia has a good definition of a Stalking Horse bidder and the bid process.

Basically, this is the preferred bidder in an auction for a companies assets and sets the lowest bid price. The Stalking Horse bidder usually has a guarantee that if they do not win the auction that they will receive some compensation in return. This is the case for the Stalking Horse bidders for the Hostess brands.

So, who is the Stalking Horse bidder for the snack cakes? According to a PR Newswire release the bidders are Apollo and Metropoulos. They have asked for an auction date of March 13.

The whole process has made me think of this statue of a horse. This partial statue of a horse comes from the ruins of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. It was part of a set of four horses pulling a chariot that was on the top of the 150 foot tall tomb of Mausolus and Artemisia II, his wife and sister. This tomb was so impressive and famous that it is where we get our word for a tomb that is above ground. It is one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.

So how did my wandering mind get to this statue? Well, many people thought that the Hostess brands were all dead. RIP Twinkies, etc.. They were all consigned to a mausoleum in many people’s thoughts. However, we now know that they will be resurrected by several different companies.

Flowers Foods is the Stalking Horse bidder for most of the Hostess bread brands and they will go to auction on February 28. Only a month away.

McKee, the makers of Little Debbie’s, is the Stalking Horse bidder for Drake’s and United States Bakeries for some of the bread brands that are not being bid on by Flowers Foods.

Of course the auction that I am really looking forward to is the one by Flowers Foods since it includes Home Pride Bread.

I am hoping that I will see it on the shelf again before summer.

Steven

For more posts on this subject, click on Home Pride Bread.