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10:26 PM CST on Wednesday, February 18, 2009
By KAREN ROBINSON-JACOBS / The Dallas Morning News
krobinson@dallasnews

The company that makes such household staples as Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies is moving its corporate headquarters to Dallas this spring to save money and find a few top executives.

Interstate Bakeries Corp., based in Kansas City, Mo., since 1930, will move 20 corporate positions to the Dallas area soon, spokesman Lew Phelps said Wednesday.

Most of the Dallas jobs – including chief executive – will be filled by transplanted Missourians. But a "small handful" will be filled locally, he said.

The company, which emerged from bankruptcy protection this month, settled on Dallas last week.

"There are a lot of people in and around Dallas that have the professional expertise that they need to get IBC firing on all cylinders and moving ahead," Phelps said.

He also said the company would save money with the move, but he could not detail how yet. He said the company did not get any government incentives and is not selling its headquarters building in Kansas City.

Dallas won't gain a lot of jobs with the move, but it does get bragging rights as the new home of one of the largest wholesale bakers and distributors in the United States.

The company, which also makes Dolly Madison Zingers and Donut Gems, has 41 U.S. bakeries and employs about 22,000 people. But it has no production facilities in Texas.

It filed for bankruptcy protection in 2004, burned in part by the low-carb craze, and emerged Feb. 3.

Phelps said the company will be looking for executives with experience in consumer packaged goods in North Texas. The area is home to Plano-based Frito-Lay Inc., the nation's largest snack maker, and the U.S. headquarters of Mexico-based Grupo Bimbo.

Grupo Bimbo, which makes Mrs Baird's bread, has a corporate office and baking facility in Fort Worth and a Tia Rosa tortilla plant in Grand Prairie. As of late 2008, the company had 1,225 workers in D-FW, a spokesman said.

Phelps said there are "no immediate plans to build any new production facilities in Texas or anywhere else" as the company tries to get back on track. He also said he did not foresee big growth in the headquarters' size anytime soon.

"This is not a big employment fair kind of thing," he said. "It's limited in scope."

He said the company already has begun holding interviews for the available Dallas slots.

I haven't eaten any Hostess Twinkies lately. Didn't know they still made them. Never was a big fan. Kind of boring to a kid.

Me neither, Adam ~ but they're kind of a neat little food item. My mom used to put them in my school lunchbox on occasion, but by the time my turn came to fill them, Twinkies were considered almost poisonous I've always had a soft spot for goodies made by Little Debbie ... and we still buy some of her treats But, nice to know that Dallas will soon be Twinkie Central

Some Twinkie info and lore (there's bound to be more) ~

http://www.hostesscakes.com/twinkies.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twinkie

http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/twinkies.asp

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/story?id=3080425

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/twinkie.htm



Thanks for the news, T