Surprise bankruptcy will keep beloved treats off store shelves

Consumers don't care about the behind-the-scenes workings of their favorite brands. They go to the store and assume that whatever they normally buy will be there.

The covid pandemic and supply chain problems changed those expectations a little bit. Sometimes, even for really big brands, the selection would be slim, and some favorite products or flavors might be missing.

Related: Popular mall retailer facing potential Chapter 11 bankruptcy

That was true of Starbucks (SBUX) - Get Free Report ready-to-drink coffee during the darkest days of the pandemic. The brand still had some products in coolers at convenience stores like Wawa and 7-Eleven, but many flavors and even whole product lines were out.

As that was happening, however, most consumers knew the reason. They didn't worry (at least most didn't) that Starbucks had stopped making their favorite flavor or that the store they were in stopped carrying it. Still, when a product goes missing on store shelves people often assume the worst.

And, in 2012, the worst actually happened as Hostess filed for bankruptcy and its products became collector's items that quickly disappeared from stores. You may not have eaten a Twinkie or Ding Ding in years, but their absence — perhaps permanently — touched a nostalgic nerve in many people's bodies.

Hostess, as you well know, had a happy ending. The brand was purchased and its products eventually made their way back to store shelves. That's the ending that fans of the iconic Sanders Bumpy Cake hope will happen for their beloved treat.

Bumpy Cake Baker closes its doors

There is good news for fans of the Bumpy Cake, a regional favorite with more than 100 years of history.  Sanders Bumpy Cake, which owns the popular brand, has not gone bankrupt. 

Instead, Awrey's, the bakery it contracted to make the popular cake has unexpectedly closed its doors. The bakery did not officially file for bankruptcy, but its owners say it has permanently closed. 

That creates a situation where Second Nature Brands, the parent company of Sanders Bumpy Cake needs to find a new bakery partner. It also means that once the current inventory of the popular treat sells out — something likely to happen quickly once the news gets out — Bumpy Cake could be off store shelves for an extended time period.

"Originally created in the early 1900s by the Sanders Chocolates company in Detroit (where the ice cream float was also invented), this cake sports a poured fudge frosting over “bumps” of vanilla buttercream, creating the name by which Midwesterners have known and loved it for many years: Bumpy Cake," King Arthur Baking shared.

Awrey had a previous bankruptcy in 2013, but survived. Earlier this year, there was a temporary disruption in Bumpy Cake production due to supply chain issues.

The latest news was unexpected and will cause supply issues, according to comments from Second Nature Brands CEO Victor Mehren reported by RetailWire.

“This will be disappointing news for all our loyal Michigan-area customers that grew up with Bumpy Cake in their lives. We are very disappointed, in fact, heartbroken to have a supply disruption at this point in time, as well," he shared.

The company has, however, begun the process of finding a new manufacturing partner but has not shared how long it will take to return Bumpy Cake to store shelves. 

 Second Nature Brands focuses on selling healthy snacks, although it's unclear how the Bump Cake fits into that lineup.

"At Second Nature Brands, we are believers in the growing consumer trends towards healthier lifestyles and food options," the company shared on its website. 

The company sells a number of trail mix products under different brand names and has a relationship with Kroger, which carries some of its products.