Hostess Brands acting CEO Dean Metropoulos spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Stuart Varney about becoming one of the new owners of Hostess brands following a $410 million joint bid from Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO). Metropoulos said, “Apollo and I have put in approximately $700 million dollars to get this business up and running,” and that, “We are quite optimistic given the new model that we have taken over that sheds many of the complexities and restrictions of the past business model.”
On whether he thinks the Hostess brands is strong enough to prove profitable:
“We’re also committing another $300 million dollars to get these operations up and running get some marketing going so our total commitment, Apollo and I have put in approximately $700 million dollars to get this business up and running. Indeed we do feel very confident that these brands have a great place with the American consumer, we want to certainly bring them back and make them even more relevant going forward. Yes we are quite optimistic given the new model that we have taken over that sheds many of the complexities and restrictions of the past business model.”
On whether he plans to take Hostess Brands public:
“The exit finds its own solution, it could mean public, it could mean mergers, it could mean an ultimate sale but certainly our objective here is to worry less about that for the time being and more about how we bring back and build a great business model.”
