- By Peter Hoskins
- Business reporter
September 12, 2023, 01:26 BST
Updated 58 minutes ago
Image source: Getty Images
Classic US snack maker Hostess Brands is to be acquired by rival food giant JM Smucker in a $5.6bn (£4.5bn) deal.
Shares of the company, known for brands such as Twinkies, Donettes and Ho Hos, jumped on the news.
Smucker is famous for its canned fruit and Jif peanut butter.
Some of America’s biggest food brands – including PepsiCo, Oreo maker Mondelez International and Cheerios maker General Mills – were also reportedly interested in buying Hostess.
Smucker said it expects the transaction to close in the third quarter of the current fiscal year.
Based in the city of Lenexa, Kansas, Hostess produces several well-known household brands, including Ding Dongs, Zingers and Voortman cookies and waffles.
The roots of the company, which currently employs around 3,000 people, go back more than a century to the sale of the first Hostess CupCake.
In 2012, Hostess filed for bankruptcy after failed talks with the workers’ union left the company financially unviable.
It was saved from bankruptcy in 2013 by investment firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co.
Four years after its near-collapse, Hostess Brands returned to the stock market and is now listed on the New York trading platform Nasdaq.
Ohio-based Smucker, which owns coffee and pet food brands in addition to its jams and jellies, has a stock market valuation of about $14 billion.
The deal marks the latest major acquisition this year in the U.S. food industry.
Last month, Campbell’s Soup announced it was buying Sovos Bands, owner of Rao’s Pasta Sauce, for $2.7 billion.
A month earlier, M&M’s owner Mars acquired Kevin’s Natural Foods, while consumer goods giant Unilever bought frozen yogurt brand Yasso in June.
Shares of Hostess Brands ended the New York trading day up more than 19%. Smucker shares closed 7% lower.