Some billion-dollar ideas begin in boardrooms. One of America’s most recognizable snack cakes began with a bakery manager looking at equipment that wasn’t being used.
In 1930, James Alexander Dewar was managing a Continental Baking Company plant in River Forest, Ill., when he noticed a problem. The pans used to make the company’s small strawberry shortcakes were useful only during strawberry season, leaving the equipment sitting idle for much of the year.
Dewar came up with a remarkably simple solution: Use those pans to make inexpensive sponge cakes year-round, inject them with a creamy filling and sell them two for a nickel.
The Twinkie was born.
More than nine decades later, the little cakes were part of a collection of brands valuable enough to help inspire a multibillion-dollar acquisition. In 2023, The J.M. Smucker Co. bought Hostess Brands in a deal with an enterprise value of approximately $5.6 billion.
How Were Twinkies Invented?
Dewar’s idea arrived during the Great Depression, when Continental Baking was looking for inexpensive products it could sell to cash-strapped consumers.
According to the Hagley Museum and Library, Dewar noticed that the pans used for strawberry sponge cakes weren’t being used during the months when strawberries were out of season. Rather than let the equipment sit dormant, he devised another product that could be made in the same pans.
Hostess dates the birth of Twinkies to 1930 and credits Dewar with creating the sponge cakes. Contemporary accounts of Dewar’s invention say the company wanted an inexpensive snack it could sell for just a few cents, making his use of equipment Continental already owned particularly practical.
The name had nothing to do with the recipe. Dewar reportedly remembered seeing an advertisement for Twinkle Toe Shoes during a trip and adapted the memorable name into “Twinkies.”
There was another major difference between Dewar’s creation and the Twinkies lining store shelves today: The original filling wasn’t vanilla.
It was banana.
Related: In 1927, Dorothy Gerber got tired of straining peas for her 7-month-old daughter; 80 years later, she sold it for $5.5 billion to Nestlé
Why Did Twinkies Change From Banana to Vanilla?
For their first years on the market, Twinkies were filled with banana-flavored crème. That changed during World War II, when bananas became difficult to obtain.
The company switched to vanilla crème, and the replacement proved so popular that it became the familiar version of the Twinkie. Hostess’ own history notes that the original cakes had banana-flavored filling before vanilla became the favorite.
Banana Twinkies didn’t disappear forever. Hostess has periodically brought the flavor back, including a return to the cakes’ roots decades later, but vanilla remained the flavor most closely associated with the brand.
Meanwhile, Twinkies grew from Dewar’s solution for unused bakery equipment into a piece of American pop culture. The snack appeared everywhere from children’s television to movies, and its distinctive golden cake and white center became instantly recognizable.
The brand even survived something that once looked far more threatening than a shortage of bananas.
Twinkies Nearly Disappeared Before Making a Comeback
By the early 2010s, the future of Twinkies was anything but certain.
Hostess Brands entered bankruptcy proceedings in 2012 and announced plans to wind down its operations, putting Twinkies and other familiar products in jeopardy. But the disappearance didn’t last.
In 2013, investment firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co. acquired Hostess’ snack cake business and brands for approximately $410 million and relaunched the company. Twinkies returned to shelves that summer.
Three years later, Hostess became a publicly traded company again. The resurrection ultimately set up an extraordinary corporate endpoint for a product that had started because a bakery manager didn’t want perfectly good pans sitting around unused.
J.M. Smucker Bought Hostess Brands for $5.6 Billion
In September 2023, The J.M. Smucker Co. announced an agreement to acquire Hostess Brands for $34.25 per share in cash and stock. The transaction represented an enterprise value of approximately $5.6 billion, including roughly $900 million in net debt.
The deal included far more than Twinkies. Hostess Brands also brought Donettes, CupCakes, Ding Dongs, Zingers, Ho Hos, CoffeeCakes, Mini Muffins and Fruit Pies, along with the Voortman cookie brand, into Smucker’s portfolio.
Smucker completed the acquisition on Nov. 7, 2023.
It was a remarkable destination for a snack whose origin was almost aggressively practical. Dewar wasn’t trying to create a cultural icon or build a multibillion-dollar food business when he looked at those unused pans in 1930.
He was trying to figure out what else his bakery could make with equipment it already had.
The answer was Twinkies.
Related: In 1921, a Minneapolis Flour Company Invented ‘Betty Crocker’ to Answer Customers’ Letters; by 1945, Fortune Named Her America’s Second-Most Famous Woman After Eleanor Roosevelt
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