Inventure Foods manufactures specialty food brands including Boulder Canyon Foods, TGI Fridays and Vidalia.
HANOVER, Pennsylvania. – Salty snack maker Utz Quality Foods, LLC has reached an agreement to acquire Phoenix-based Inventure Foods, Inc. in a deal valued at approximately $165 million. The deal comes just over a year after Inventure launched a strategic and financial review to increase shareholder value.
Under the terms of the agreement, Utz will launch a tender offer to acquire all outstanding shares of Inventure common stock at $4 per share in cash, for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $165 million. dollars, including the assumption of about $75 million. debt and debt-like items, net of cash, approximately $8 million of the company’s estimated closing costs and approximately $3 million due to equity award holders.
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| Dylan Lissette, CEO of Utz Quality Foods |
“We are extremely excited about acquiring Inventure Foods,” said Dylan Lissette, Managing Director of Utz Quality Foods. “The Company’s specialty snack products and brands, as well as its geographic footprint, customer relationships and distribution strengths, are highly complementary to our business, and we look forward to continuing the strong legacy of Inventure’s innovation in healthy and indulgent snacks. We were also extremely impressed with the Inventure team and look forward to working together in the future.
After operating for about a decade as Poore Brothers, Inventure Group was formed in 2006 as part of the company’s transition from a regional potato chip producer to a national snack food distributor. Today, the company is a distributor and manufacturer of specialty food brands in better-for-you and indulgent categories under a variety of company-owned and licensed brands, including Boulder Canyon Foods, TGI Fridays, Nathan’s Famous, Vidalia Brands, Poore Brothers, Tato Skins and Bob’s Texas Style. The company has manufacturing facilities in Arizona and Indiana.
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| Terry McDaniel, CEO of Inventure Foods |
“This transaction is the result of diligent analysis and thoughtful strategic deliberations by our Board of Directors and the outcome of the strategic and financial review we initiated in July 2016,” said Terry McDaniel, CEO of Inventure. Foods. “Our Board of Directors, with the guidance of independent advisors, has determined that this transaction will provide immediate and certain cash value for our shareholders and new opportunities for our snack brands.”
Utz Quality Foods has a rich history in the snack industry in the United States. Founded in 1921, Utz is the largest privately owned, family-owned branded savory snack company in the United States, producing a full line of products including potato chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, corn chips, tortillas , vegetable sticks/straws, popcorn, onion rings, pork skins and more. Its brands include Utz, Golden Flake, Zapp’s, “Dirty” Potato Chips, Good Health, Bachman, Bachman Jax, Wachusett and Snikiddy. Utz operates 10 facilities located in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Louisiana, Massachusetts and Alabama.
In September, Utz named a trio of consumer packaged goods veterans to its leadership team. Thomas Flocco was named president and chief operating officer, while Mark Schreiber was named executive vice president and chief customer officer and Jay Thompson was hired as executive vice president and chief financial officer.
