I suspect (with no specific knowledge of the situation, just pattern recognition) that a problem was that the contracts were negotiated when times were good. B

I suspect (with no specific knowledge of the situation, just pattern recognition) that a problem was that the contracts were negotiated when times were good. But since food has very little IP protection besides the brand name, they eventually lost out on ways to distinguish Hostess® Twinkee®s from Generic Snake Cake With Cream Filling that can be just as good but made more cheaply.