Utz and Metropoulos Partner Up
Utz Quality Foods, LLC and Metropoulos & Co. formed a strategic partnership, with Metropoulos & Co. making a significant investment in the 95-year-old company. The Rice family, which has owned and operated the Utz business for four generations, continues to be the controlling and majority shareholders.
Utz, which recently acquired Golden Enterprises, the Birmingham, Alabama producer of snacks under the popular Golden Flake brand in the southern United States, is expected to generate approximately $800 million in combined sales in 2017. Over the past five years, the company has made several other key acquisitions, broadening its brand portfolio to include Good Health, Bachman, Zapp’s, “Dirty”, Snikiddy and Wachusett, and expanded its distribution and geographic footprint.
The Metropoulos & Co. investment, which was used to finance Utz’s acquisition of Golden Flake, is the largest initial private equity transaction for a U.S. snack company since 2013, when Metropoulos and Apollo Global Management invested in Hostess Brands. With extensive consumer products knowledge, operational expertise and flexible capital, Metropoulos & Co. is well-known for its past work with such brands as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Ghirardelli Chocolates, Bumble Bee Foods, Vlasic Pickles, Chef Boyardee and Perrier-Jouet/Mumm, among many others.
Utz, which recently acquired Golden Enterprises, the Birmingham, Alabama producer of snacks under the popular Golden Flake brand in the southern United States, is expected to generate approximately $800 million in combined sales in 2017. Over the past five years, the company has made several other key acquisitions, broadening its brand portfolio to include Good Health, Bachman, Zapp’s, “Dirty”, Snikiddy and Wachusett, and expanded its distribution and geographic footprint.
The Metropoulos & Co. investment, which was used to finance Utz’s acquisition of Golden Flake, is the largest initial private equity transaction for a U.S. snack company since 2013, when Metropoulos and Apollo Global Management invested in Hostess Brands. With extensive consumer products knowledge, operational expertise and flexible capital, Metropoulos & Co. is well-known for its past work with such brands as Pabst Blue Ribbon, Ghirardelli Chocolates, Bumble Bee Foods, Vlasic Pickles, Chef Boyardee and Perrier-Jouet/Mumm, among many others.