Hostess Brands to open new bakery in Arkansas

US-based company Hostess Brands has announced plans to open a new bakery facility in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, in order to meet increased demand for its products.

The sweet snacks company, which owns brands such as Donettes, Twinkies, CupCakes and Voortman, will invest between $120 million-$140 million to convert the 330,000-square-foot facility.  

The bakery will expand Hostess’ capacity across its Donettes and cake platforms by approximately 20%. The investment will also enable the company to coordinate future production growth.

Andy Callahan, president and chief executive officer of Hostess Brands, commented: “We’ve been profitably gaining market share across the snacking categories in which we compete. The addition of this new bakery signals our confidence that we expect the growth we have demonstrated over the last several years to continue.” 

He added: “We are emphasising a sustainability-first approach to this project while leveraging best practices from across our network of bakeries and we anticipate this bakery will be our most efficient and greenest operation yet”.

The new facility is expected to be fully operational by the second half of 2023 and will provide around 150 local jobs over the next three years.