Hostess Company

Hostess Company

Introduction

The story of Hostess Company started from 1919, formerly known as the Interstate Bakeries Corporation, when the first Hostess Cupcake was introduced. The Hostess brand was founded by Ralph Leroy Nafziger in 1930. It has its main headquarters in Irving, Texas. In 1930, the company boomed up its growth when Jimmy Dewar invented the Twinkies sponge cakes that supported the company at the time of its depression period. Hostess is a leading bakery that sells baked commodities to other stores and supermarkets. The famous products that Hostess makes are Ho-hos, Twinkies, Fruit Pies, Wonder and Home Pride. Since 1930, it was known as the Interstate Brands Corporation, but later in 2009 it renamed to Hostess Brands Inc. After the first retail outlet inauguration, the demographic figure of their store count have been reaching the peak in the international market and started to spread their name globally. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2004 and again in 2012 as the management has lost its control over its iconic brand (Forbes, 2013).

Hostess faced many threats of bankruptcy and liquidation due to which it had to face loss of production and financial problems. Hostess blames the management that it has been poorly managed and the only hope to survive in the bakery industry, is to have a completely new management team. The workers of the company got dissatisfied with the company's management which led the company to insolvency. This research paper will discuss the challenges that Hostess Brands is or has been experiencing from the compensation and benefit systems. Challenges from the competitors will also be looked over for researching over the market competition. This will help in criticizing the suitable recommendations in the short and long term periods (Adams, T., 2013).

Discussion

Review of the Literature

Hostess Company experiencing challenges from compensation and benefits system

The compensation and benefit systems of Hostess Brands are all affiliated and interconnected with the international market expansion methods. The two most important factors involving in the compensation and benefits system are: franchising and licensing. They have researched and developed a diversified, large and global franchise network that has spread all over the world with a leading position and a wide success in making the original crème-filled cakes (Forbes, 2013).

Literature Review

Jennifer Ludden stated that generations of American children have grown up on Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies, but these iconic brands have lost some of their luster and the company that makes them is in trouble. Changing consumer tastes and business problems have combined to put Interstate Bakeries on the verge of bankruptcy (Adams, T., 2013).

Frank Morris considers in his report that Wonder Bread emerged about 80 years ago, one of the first production breads to be sold sliced and the first to be marketed coast to coast.

An unidentified man sang: We are the bakers and (unintelligible) whose pans are so polished and shining bright, who bake the bread which is always right. Hurrah for the Wonder bakers (Davis, D., 2012).

Frank Morris stated that according to the editor ...