COLUMBUS, GA. — Hostess Brands, L.L.C., a new company and employer under new ownership, will relaunch its bakery in Columbus this summer with a full assortment of Hostess snack products, including Twinkies, Cup Cakes, HoHos and Ding Dongs. The company initially will add 200 jobs to the local economy and plans to create a total of more than 300 jobs in the community within the next several years.

Investment in the reopening of the Columbus facility is being funded by Apollo Global Management L.L.C. and Metropoulos & Co., which earlier this year purchased selected Hostess assets out of bankruptcy.

“Over the past several months, we have invested significantly in Hostess and the Columbus facility we acquired,” said Dean Metropoulos, chairman and chief executive officer of Hostess. “We are focused on re-introducing the Hostess brands and bringing the company’s high quality and beloved snack products back to American consumers. We want to thank the state of Georgia and city of Columbus for their long-standing partnership and support of Hostess, and their commitment to helping us reopen this facility as quickly as possible.”

Chris Cummiskey, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Economic Development, added, “The reopening of the Hostess plant will give a tremendous boost to Columbus and the local economy. Not only will the community benefit from over 300 manufacturing jobs, but Hostess will have access to lower production costs, a workforce training program, and our advanced transportation and logistics network.”

Georgia Quick Start will provide Hostess with customized workforce training assistance to facilitate the relaunch of the Columbus bakery. In addition, the following are involved in the project: the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia EMC, Georgia Department of Labor, Columbus Technical College, Columbus Consolidated Government, Development Authority of Columbus and the Greater Columbus Georgia Chamber of Commerce, and they have all helped forward Hostess’ plans to invest more than $20 million into the facility and community.