Utz Brands is expanding its operational capabilities, and it’s doing so through a new, recently acquired facility. The company’s subsidiary Utz Quality Foods purchased a brand-new, recently completed snack food manufacturing facility in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, from Evans Food Group d/b/a Benestar Brands and related affiliates.
"With continued growth and excitement for our snack food brands, we are very excited to expand our roots in North Carolina, where we will be adding over 115 new jobs over time," said Cary Devore, Chief Operating Officer of Utz Brands. “This is a strong step forward in optimizing our plant and logistics network, and it will allow us to in-source manufacturing across several product types that we currently outsource to some degree. This transaction increases our operational flexibility and will contribute to higher long-term margins over time, based on identifiable, multi-faceted cost synergies.”
The total purchase price of the transaction was approximately $38.4 million, plus assumed liabilities of $1.3 million, and was funded with approximately $10.4 million in cash and $28.0 million of proceeds from the issuance and sale of 2.1 million shares of the company’s Class A Common Stock to affiliates of Benestar in a private placement, noted the release.
This purchase includes the existing building, land, and pork-rind production equipment. Utz will convert the space into a fully operational snack food manufacturing facility starting in 2022. The current 125,000-square-foot facility can be expanded to 200,000 square feet and contains state of the art high-speed pork rind manufacturing lines, which will enable multi-line production across Utz’s key sub-categories in the near future.
Additionally, the new Kings Mountain Facility will support the increased and growing demand for Utz’s brands in the Southeast, Northeast, and Mid-South regions.
“As a vertically integrated manufacturer, we believe our operations will be optimized by supplying Utz with our Chicago-based pellet production, while selling the downstream manufacturing operations to Utz. This type of partnership will only enhance operations of both companies going forward,” stated Bruce Myers, President of Benestar.
To learn more about this transaction, click here.
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