Hostess Brands (Revived)

The revived Hostess Brands succeeded by eliminating what killed the original: unionized labor, pension obligations, and nationwide distribution. The new owners automated bakeries, outsourced distribution, and ran with 1,200 employees instead of 18,500. The company went public in 2016 and sold to Smucker's for $5.6 billion in 2023. The Twinkie survived; the workers didn't. Hostess demonstrated that valuable brands can survive the death of the companies that created them.