Interstate Bakeries Corp

Just days before a Bankruptcy Court showdown with its largest union, Interstate Bakeries Corp. has filed a reorganization plan for ending more than three years of bankruptcy. The Kansas City, Mo.-based maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies filed the plan late Monday, saying it had lined up $400 million in financing from specialty lender Silver Point Finance and had received initial approval from 95% of the holders of the company's pre-petition debt.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies, said the Securities and Exchange Commission had begun an inquiry after the company hired a law firm to review reserves for worker-compensation insurance. The SEC review is informal and the agency hasn't determined whether any violations occurred, Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate said.

Shares of Interstate Bakeries Corp. fell 42% on Monday after the nation's largest wholesale baker said it had missed another deadline for submitting its annual report. The maker of Wonder bread and Hostess snack cakes also said it had retained the turnaround firm of Alvarez & Marsal to help, and it was talking to its lenders. Interstate Bakeries shares dropped $3.34 to $4.56 on the New York Stock Exchange. Trading was heavy with 3.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., whose cream-filled Twinkies have graced the lunchboxes of American schoolchildren since 1933, filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, a casualty of rising costs and lower demand for carbohydrate-rich foods. The company said it replaced Chief Executive James R. Elsesser with turnaround specialist Antonio C. Alvarez, 56, whose New York-based consulting firm has also assisted HealthSouth Corp., Spiegel Inc. and Warnaco Group Inc. Kansas City, Mo.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess cakes, plans to close a bread and roll bakery in Grand Rapids, Mich., by Dec. 3 and fire 160 workers. Production from the bakery, which prepares bread and rolls under the Wonder, Butternut and Home Pride brand names, will move to Interstate plants in Ohio and Indiana, the company said. Interstate had 34,000 employees as of May 31, according to a regulatory filing. Interstate, based in Kansas City, Mo.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the largest U.S. bread and snack cake company, was accused of racial discrimination in a $260-million lawsuit filed by 15 black employees of the company's San Francisco bakery. The suit in San Francisco County Superior Court accuses the maker of Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies of failing to hire and promote black workers, fostering a hostile work environment replete with racial slurs and obscene insults, and treating minority employees inequitably.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., the nation's largest wholesale baking company, agreed to buy Drake's bakery, adding the maker of Devil Dogs and Yankee Doodles snack cakes to a lineup that includes Hostess Twinkies and Wonder Bread. Terms of the all-cash transaction with Drake's owner, Culinar Inc., a closely held Canadian company, weren't disclosed. Drake's, with a bakery in Wayne, N.J., has annual sales of $115 million, mostly in the Northeastern U.S.

Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate Bakeries Corp. said it bought the San Francisco French Bread Co. from Rosemont, Ill.-based Specialty Foods Corp. for an undisclosed amount. San Francisco French Bread, which has annual sales of about $100 million, makes the Parisian, Columbo and Toscana sourdough breads and rolls sold in California. Interstate, the maker of Wonder breads and Hostess Twinkies, said it intends to distribute the sourdough products over a larger region.

Twinkie lovers, get ready to go bananas. The sweet treat known for its golden spongy cake and its creamy vanilla center is returning to its roots with banana-creme filling -- the flavor that first made the snack a hit more than 70 years ago. Hostess, owned by Kansas City, Mo.-based Interstate Bakeries Corp., has begun selling the snack cakes with a filling that tastes just as sweet as the standard vanilla but with a subtle hint and smell of banana.

Southern California parents packing children off to school this fall may have to do without a lunchtime staple: Wonder Bread. The company that makes the white bread with red, yellow and blue balloons on the wrapper said Tuesday that it was closing its Southland bakeries and laying off 1,300 workers. But junk-food lovers can take heart: The company locally will still make Hostess Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Ho Hos and other snacks.