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The parent company of Hostess brands announced late Tuesday it plans to close its east-side Indianapolis manufacturing facility.
Orrville, Ohio-based J.M. Smucker Co. said the change is part of a greater consolidation effort. The Indianapolis facility manufactures Hostess-brand items, which include Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Donettes and CupCakes.
The facility is expected to close by the end of 2026. The company also said it plans to sell the 225,000-square-foot facility at 2929 N. Shadeland Ave.
“This decision continues the ongoing work to ensure our manufacturing network is optimized to mitigate costs and reduce complexity in support of the execution of our Sweet Baked Snacks strategy, which is focused on stabilizing the Hostess business and positioning it for long-term growth,” Judd Freitag, senior vice president and general manager of the Pet and Sweet Baked Snacks segment said in a written statement. “Any decision that impacts our employees is only made after careful consideration. We appreciate the contributions of our Indianapolis employees, and we will support them through this transition.”
The company said it plans to announce next steps when it reports its fourth-quarter earnings on June 10. A Smucker spokesperson told IBJ on Wednesday that the company has around 260 employees at the facility.
J.M. Smucker purchased the long-troubled snack-cake company in a $5.6 billion cash-and-stock deal in 2023.
Hostess, which dates back to the mid-1920s, was struggling by the early 2010s, filing for bankruptcy protection in 2012 and later going out of business after a nationwide strike crippled its operations. About 800 workers in Indiana, including nearly 300 in Indianapolis, lost their jobs.
Around that time, the company began selling off its brands in chunks to different buyers: Wonder was sold to Flowers Foods; and McKee Foods, which makes Little Debbie snack cakes, snapped up Drake’s Cake, which includes Devil Dogs and Yodels. The rest, including Twinkies and other Hostess cakes, was then acquired by Metropoulos & Co. and Apollo—both of which had a reputation for buying up troubled brands and revamping them—for $410 million.
The Indianapolis plant reopened in 2013, receiving an eight-year, $536,000 abatement from the city. As part of that agreement, the company agreed to hire at least 145 local employees.
Smucker’s stock sat at about $114 as of 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday.
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