Hostess Brands Revives Business With Accenture

Hostess Brands has partnered with Accenture, a provider of global management consulting and technology services, to create a new operating model, improve business processes and deliver end-to-end IT transformation. Hostess Brands credits the successful resurrection of Twinkies and other snack cakes to its partnership with Accenture, which began in April 2013. Hostess products returned to store shelves in early July 2013.

Efforts implemented by Accenture to help rebuild Hostess Brands included:

• Designed and implemented end-to-end front- and back-office processes, including finance, procurement, sales, transportation management and distribution functions;
• Developed IT infrastructure to support basic company functions such as email, help desk and phone systems;
• Built a multi-year support model to manage all applications and processes;
• Implemented a warehouse delivery distribution system;
• Created a new data center hosted on Accenture’s private cloud; and
• Provided systems support and training to all Hostess employees.
   

“Accenture played an invaluable role in helping bring these much-loved products back onto store shelves and into the hands of U.S. consumers,” said C. Dean Metropoulos, Owner and CEO of Hostess Brands. “The speed and precision of the delivery was crucial, so that our products were available for the back-to-school sales period. Within the first two weeks of reintroducing Twinkies to the shelf we had five times more Twinkies on the market than during the same period last year, and Accenture played its part in helping us make this the sweetest comeback in the history of ever.”

For the duration of the contract, Accenture also will continue to manage all IT applications, infrastructure and data center services on behalf of Hostess Brands. Financial terms of the contract have not been disclosed.