Collier Creek to acquire US salty snacks manufacturer Utz Quality Foods

Utz Quality Foods, a Pennsylvania-based salty snacks manufacturer has agreed to be acquired by Collier Creek, a special purpose acquisition company, to combine and form Utz Brands, a pure-play snack food platform with an initial enterprise value of about $1.56 billion.

Established in 1921, Utz Quality Foods owns brands such as Utz, Zapp’s, Golden Flake, Good Health, Boulder Canyon, and others. The salty snacks company operates 14 manufacturing facilities across the US with a wide range of capabilities, producing a full range of potato chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, veggie snacks, pub/party mix, and other snacks.

Post-acquisition, Utz Quality Foods as Utz Brands will become a publicly listed company. The Rice and Lissette family, the founders and owners of Utz Quality Foods will retain more than 90% of its existing equity stake, which will represent an excess of 50% ownership in Utz Brands following completion of the transaction.

Dylan Lissette – Utz Quality Foods CEO said: “As we approach our 100-year anniversary, we are excited to take this important step forward to position Utz for its next century of growth. This transaction enables Utz to continue its long-term growth plans and provides greater access to capital to fund organic and inorganic growth. We remain deeply committed to Utz’s continued success.”

Collier Creek to acquire US salty snacks manufacturer Utz Quality Foods. Photo courtesy of NYSE.

The deal is anticipated to be wrapped up in Q3 2020, subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, which include the approval of the shareholders of Collier Creek.

Roger Deromedi – Collier Creek co-founder said: “Utz Brands is a phenomenal business combination that meets all of the criteria we established when we launched Collier Creek. It’s a leading platform in the attractive and growing salty snack category, with significant competitive advantages and multiple opportunities to accelerate growth and drive value creation.

“We are confident that by supporting Dylan and the talented management team with our proven operating playbook, Utz can become the fastest-growing pure-play branded snack platform of scale in the U.S. We look forward to working with the Utz team in the years ahead.”