Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and Kroger Co. (KR) are among the bidders for assets being sold by Hostess Brands Inc., the bankrupt maker of Wonder bread and Twinkies, said a person familiar with the matter. 
 
 There are about two dozen bidders, said the person, who asked not to be named because the process is confidential. Last month, financial adviser Joshua Scherer of Perella Weinberg Partners LP said the liquidation sale may generate about $1 billion. 
 
 A few of the bids are for all the assets, some are for just the cakes or breads businesses, and others are interested in individual Hostess plants or products, according to the person. Other first-round bidders include Grupo Bimbo SAB and Alpha Baking Co., the person said. 
 
 The 82-year-old maker of Hostess CupCakes, Ding Dongs and Ho Hos said last month that it would liquidate and fire more than 18,000 workers after failing to reach agreement with its striking bakers’ union on concessions to help it emerge from its second bankruptcy. Changes in American diets led to years of declining sales at Hostess, while ingredient costs and labor expenses climbed. 
 
 Representatives for Hostess, Wal-Mart, Kroger, Alpha Baking and Bimbo declined to comment on the auction process. C. Dean Metropoulos & Co., the private-equity firm that owns Pabst Brewing Co., planned to submit a bid, Daren Metropoulos, a principal at the Greenwich, Connecticut-based firm, said this week. He didn’t respond to a request for comment. 
 
 Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Hostess Brands Inc. Twinkies snacks sit on a shelf inside the company's outlet store in Peoria, Illinois, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. Close Hostess Brands Inc. Twinkies snacks sit on a shelf inside the company's outlet store in... Read More Close Open Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg Hostess Brands Inc. Twinkies snacks sit on a shelf inside the company's outlet store in Peoria, Illinois, on Friday, Nov. 16, 2012. 
 
 Union Standoff 
 
 A standoff with striking union workers triggered liquidation auctions of Hostess’s brands, recipes, plants and other assets. The Bakery Confectionery Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike Nov. 9 after U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain imposed contract concessions opposed by more than 90 percent of the union’s members. The union represents more than 5,000 Hostess workers. 
 
 Hostess emerged from an earlier bankruptcy in 2009 as a private company controlled by buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings LLC and lenders. The company was previously known as Interstate Bakeries Corp. and changed its name to Hostess Brands in October of that year. Hostess entered its latest bankruptcy in January. 
 
 The new case is In re Hostess Brands Inc., 12-22052, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (White Plains). The prior bankruptcy was In re Interstate Bakeries Corp., 04- 45814, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of Missouri (Kansas City). 
 
 To contact the reporters on this story: Jeffrey McCracken in New York at jmccracken3@bloomberg.net; Beth Jinks in New York at bjinks1@bloomberg.net 
 
 To contact the editor responsible for this story: Jeffrey McCracken at jmccracken3@bloomberg.net ||||| Walmart is looking to lasso Twinkie the Kid. 
 
 The largest US discounter and other gigantic retail chains are among a pack of emerging bidders for some of the much-loved brand names to be auctioned off by bankrupt baker Hostess Brands, according to a report yesterday. 
 
 The maker of Wonder Bread, Twinkies and Ding Dongs — which last month closed its plants and laid off most of its 18,000 workers — has attracted a bevy of would-be breadwinners betting that America’s love affair with junk food isn’t over yet. 
 
 Walmart had been Hostess’s biggest customer, accounting for 40 percent of the baker’s production of Ho Hos, Suzy-Qs, Fruit Pies and Sno-Balls, among other sugary snack cakes. 
 
 If Walmart wins the Bankruptcy Court auction for the Twinkies brand — or any other Hostess asset — it could mean that the snack foods would be available in the US only in the 4,479 Walmart and Sam’s Club stores. 
 
 Walmart over the years has acquired numerous defunct labels, such as White Cloud toilet paper, which it snatched up after Procter & Gamble failed to renew its trademark. 
 
 Walmart declined comment. 
 
 Hostess, liquidating after management and unions failed to reach a labor deal with its bakers union, has received interest from about two dozen bidders in the first round of a bankruptcy auction, according to Bloomberg News, which cited unnamed sources and first reported on the Walmart bid. 
 
 Also ogling Hostess brands is grocery store giant Kroger, which has 3,226 groceries and convenience stores in the US. 
 
 “A few of the bids are for all the assets, some are for just the cakes or breads businesses, and others are interested in individual Hostess plants or products,” according to the report. 
 
 The report said other bidders include Mexican baking giant Grupo Bimbo as well as Alpha Bakers. 
 
 While a shift toward healthier eating habits among consumers helped push Hostess into insolvency, the cake maker was also scrambling to recover from years of mismanagement. 
 
 Hostess entered its latest bankruptcy in January, despite the fact it had emerged from a previous bankruptcy in 2009 under the ownership of buyout firm Ripplewood Holdings. 
 
 Now, Walmart is in the hunt for Hostess despite the fact that the mega-discounter earlier this month had weighed abruptly replacing the brand in order to avoid empty shelves, sources told The Post earlier this month. ||||| The tasty cream-filled golden spongecakes known as Twinkies are likely to survive, even though their maker will be sold in bankruptcy court. 
 
 FILE - This Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2012, file photo, shows, Hostess Twinkies in a studio in New York. Twinkie lovers, relax. The tasty cream-filled golden spongecakes are likely to survive, even though their... (Associated Press) 
 
 Hostess Brands Inc., baker of Wonder Bread as well as Twinkies, Ding Dongs and Ho Ho's, will be in a New York bankruptcy courtroom Monday to start the process of selling itself. 
 
 The company, weighed down by debt, management turmoil, rising labor costs and the changing tastes of America, decided on Friday that it no longer could make it through a conventional Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. Instead, it's asking the court for permission to sell assets and go out of business. 
 
 But with high brand recognition and $2.5 billion in revenue per year, other companies are interested in bidding for at least pieces of Hostess. Twinkies alone have brought in $68 million in revenue so far this year, which would look good to another snack-maker. 
 
 "There's a huge amount of goodwill with the commercial brand name," said John Pottow, a University of Michigan Law School professor who specializes in bankruptcy. "It's quite conceivable that they can sell the name and recipe for Twinkies to a company that wants to make them." 
 
 Hostess has said it's received inquiries about buying parts of the company. But spokesman Lance Ignon would not comment on analysts' reports that Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers Foods Inc. and private equity food investment firm Metropoulos & Co. are likely suitors. Metropoulos owns Pabst Brewing Co., while Flowers Foods makes Nature's Own bread, Tastykake treats and other baked goods. Messages were left for spokesmen for both companies on Sunday. 
 
 "We think there's a lot of value in the brands, and we'll certainly be trying to maximize value, both of the brands and the physical assets," Ignon said Sunday. He said it's possible some of Hostess' bakeries will never return to operation because the industry has too much bakery capacity. 
 
 Little will be decided at Monday afternoon's hearing before Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain, Pottow said. The judge eventually will appoint a company that specializes in liquidation to sell the assets, and the sale probably will take six months to a year to complete, Pottow said. 
 
 Irving, Texas-based Hostess filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in January for the second time in less than a decade. Its predecessor company, Interstate Bakeries, sought bankruptcy protection in 2004 and changed its name to Hostess after emerging in 2009. 
 
 The company said it was saddled with costs related to its unionized workforce. The company had been contributing $100 million a year in pension costs for workers; the new contract offer would've slashed that to $25 million a year, in addition to wage cuts and a 17 percent reduction in health benefits. 
 
 Management missteps were another problem. Hostess came under fire this spring after it was revealed that nearly a dozen executives received pay hikes of up to 80 percent last year even as the company was struggling. 
 
 Then last week thousands of members of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union went on strike after rejecting the company's latest contract offer. The bakers union represents about 30 percent of the company's workforce. 
 
 By that time, the company had reached a contract agreement with its largest union, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which this week urged the bakery union to hold a secret ballot on whether to continue striking. Although many bakery workers decided to cross picket lines this week, Hostess said it wasn't enough to keep operations at normal levels. 
 
 The company filed a motion to liquidate Friday. The shuttering means the loss of about 18,500 jobs. Hostess said employees at its 33 factories were sent home and operations suspended. Its roughly 500 bakery outlet stores will stay open for several days to sell remaining products. 
 
 News of the decision caused a run on Hostess snacks at many stores around the country, and the snacks started appearing on the Internet at inflated prices.
– Sorry, Twinkies fans: Hostess really is shutting its doors. The company threatened to do so yesterday if striking workers did not return by the end of the day. Apparently they didn't, because CNN reports that the Twinkies maker is now asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to go out of business. That will mean 18,500 employees will lose their jobs, but CNN notes that Ding Dongs and other popular items could still survive under another brand, as Hostess will be selling its assets at auction. Slate reminds us that Hostess has gone bankrupt before; that time around, Mexico's Bimbo Bakeries tried to nab it. Maybe they'll try again—although, writes Matthew Yglesias, "the company's various packaged snack cakes are cultural icons, but also pretty unfashionable in the era of artisanal cupcakes." Wonder Bread, too, has suffered as customers gravitate toward healthier options like multigrain bread. (Click to see why one food writer fervently believes it's time for the Twinkie to die.)