Hostess is back.
Seven months after Hostess announced plans to shut down following its bankruptcy, the snack food brand is bringing its products back to stores. Hostess Brands, which is now owned by the private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co., plans to ship about 100 million snack cakes -- including Donettes, Ho Hos, Ding Dongs and of course Twinkies -- to stores across the country over the course of the next two weeks.
Other products will follow in the next few months, and the plan is for Hostess products to reach 160,000 stores by the end of this year.
As part of its return, Hostess' new owners have invested in a multi-million dollar ad campaign with the cheeky tagline, "The Sweetest Comeback in the History of Ever." The company is using traditional ad spots along with other gimmicks like a Hostess food truck that will travel across the country, along with massive outdoor advertisements in Los Angeles and New York.
Photo: The most patriotic billboard in Los Angeles. #losangeles #california #downtownla #hostess #cakes http://t.co/uX7jjX7VBr— corey barnes (@radiospringy) July 11, 2013
Hostess launched a countdown to its return on Hostesscakes.com and created a dedicated web page called Prepare Your Cakeface, which collects Vine and Instagram videos of customers eating Hostess products.
Hostess has also been actively promoting the lead-up to its return on its Twitter and Facebook pages:
And we're back. Back in stores. Back in your life. Back where we belong. #comeback pic.twitter.com/BSSGe7vYyh— Hostess Snacks (@Hostess_Snacks) July 15, 2013
Do you plan on buying Hostess products as they roll out on shelves? Let us know in the comments below.