I did not read the story.
What killed the twinkie?
High cost of sugar. Read that elsewhere.

my opinions
Failure of Hostess to raise price of product to make cost and profit. That is the only solution for a company to survive. If the consumer does not want to pay the price of a product the company will fold.
I understand they had lagging sales of their products.
They did not shift production to a more desired product if sales were lagging.
They needed to temporarily close non profitable plants.
Failure to maintain cash flow to service cost and debt will bring disaster.
They tried borrowing their way out of it.
Poor management skills at the upper levels.

@JAP69,
Very good analysis. This, in conjunction to taking all their mistakes out on the employees, is the epitome of a "recipe for disaster"...literally. Sometimes before we just pass judgement on unions or (D), we need to get all the information and numbers. The numbers will never lie as you can see. Poor management skills is a problem everywhere this day and time in our economy. Good reply...