Origins Of Top Businesses: How Unused Shortcake Pans Led To The Creation Of Twinkies

Posted on July 18, 2013 in Origins Of Top Businesses // 0 Comments

This section of our site is called “Origins Of Top Businesses”.

It features interesting facts about the early years of well-known businesses.

These facts are given to you for fun and inspiration.

Fun because how many top businesses started out is really surprising.

Inspiring because it will help you as a business owner see that if they can do it, so can you.

Now for today’s facts:

Photo from Wikipedia

Twinkies were invented in River Forest, Illinois on April 6, 1930.
James Dewar invented Twinkies while he was working as a Hostess baking manager at their Chicago plant.
He was looking to make better use of shortcake pans that were just sitting around and not being used whenever the short strawberry season was over.
Dewar came up with an idea. He decided to inject the little golden cakes with a smooth creme filling.
He first used banana filling. Later he used vanilla filling because of a banana shortage during World War II.
Where did the name come from? Dewar said he came up with the name when he saw a billboard in St. Louis for “Twinkle Toe Shoes”.
Twinkies were formerly made and distributed by Hostess Brands. On May 4, 2012 Hostess filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
It is currently owned by private equity firms Apollo Global Management and Metropoulos & Co.
Twinkie production in the United States has now resumed. They were first available at Wal-Mart on July 12, 2013 and are are now available nationwide since July 15, 2013.