The companies announced the completion of their business combination to form Utz Brands, Inc., which is now a publicly traded company on the NYSE.
HANOVER, Pa.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Utz Quality Foods, LLC (“Utz” or the “Company”), a leading American manufacturer of branded salty snacks, and Collier Creek Holdings (“Collier Creek”) (NYSE: CCH, CCH.U, CCH WS), a special purpose acquisition company, today announced that they have completed their business combination. The transaction was unanimously approved by the Collier Creek Board of Directors and was approved at a special meeting of Collier Creek shareholders on August 27, 2020. Under the terms of the business combination agreement , Collier Creek and Utz have partnered to form Utz Brands. , Inc. (“Utz Brands”), a leading pure-play snacks platform in the United States. Common stock of Utz Brands will trade under the symbol “UTZ” on the New York Stock Exchange beginning August 31, 2020.
Founded in 1921, Utz has a strong heritage in the salty snack industry in the United States and over 40 years of continuous growth. The company’s signature portfolio of authentic, handcrafted and better-for-you brands includes Utz®, Zapp’s®, gold flake®, Good health®, rock canyon®, Hawaiian® Markand TORTIYAHS!®, among others. The company operates 14 manufacturing plants nationwide with a wide range of capabilities and produces a full line of potato chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, vegetarian snacks, pork skins, pub/party mixes, tortilla chips and other snacks, including innovative products that are better for your snacking options. Utz expects to generate net sales of $932 million in 2020.
Collier Creek was co-founded by Chinh Chu, Roger Deromedi and Jason Giordano, who bring over 80 years of combined investment and operating experience, with a focus on the consumer goods industry. Mr. Deromedi, who had a long and successful tenure as President of Pinnacle Foods and prior to that as CEO of Kraft Foods, will become President of Utz Brands. The Utz Brands board of directors will be composed of a majority of independent directors in accordance with the applicable listing rules of the New York Stock Exchange.
Dylan Lissette, who has served as CEO of Utz since 2013 and has been with the company for nearly 25 years, will continue to lead the company with the existing management team. Utz Brands will retain its headquarters in Hanover, Pennsylvania.
Proceeds from the transaction were used primarily to repay existing borrowings from Utz. The Rice and Lissette family, the founding family and owners of Utz, retained over 90% of their current stake, representing over 50% ownership in Utz Brands after the transaction closes.
“The completion of our business combination with Collier Creek and the launch of Utz as a public company marks an important milestone and will fuel our next century of growth after nearly 100 years as a family business,” said Mr. Lisette. “We have spent the past 10 years building Utz into a national brand and platform through rapid geographic and brand portfolio expansion driven by strategic acquisitions and organic growth. Our partnership with Roger and the Collier Creek team allows us to further accelerate our growth as a public company and achieve our goal of being the fastest growing pure play branded snacks company.
Mr. Lissette continued, “Leveraging our proven track record of profitable growth and the Collier Creek team’s expertise in creating value in food platform businesses, we have multiple ways to win in the category by full growth of salty snacks. Our growth strategy is focused on driving organic sales growth through increased marketing, new products and geographic expansion; execute on significant margin improvement opportunities; reinvest productivity gains in the business to unlock revenue growth; and continue to build the Utz platform with strategic acquisitions.
“Our partnership with Utz brings together the financial and human capital of Collier Creek with an exceptional century-old company that has significant competitive advantages and a path to profitable growth,” said Mr. Deromedi. “Utz is an iconic company with a strong portfolio of beloved snack brands, growing positions in the savory snack category, and a competitively advantaged manufacturing and distribution network. We are delighted to partner with Dylan and the talented management team at Utz to execute our proven operations playbook and drive value for all of our stakeholders.
Mr. Chu and Mr. Giordano added: “We are delighted to complete this transaction, which offers attractive value to our shareholders, and we look forward to partnering with management to drive future growth and value creation at Utz. .
Key terms of the transaction
Upon closing of the transaction, Collier Creek was domesticated as a Delaware corporation and Collier Creek’s name was changed to Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE: UTZ).
A more detailed description of the terms of the transaction will be included in a current report on Form 8-K to be filed by Utz Brands with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”).
Goldman Sachs and Sageworth act as financial advisors to Utz. Citigroup, Credit Suisse and BofA Securities act as capital markets advisors to Collier Creek. Citigroup and Credit Suisse are acting as lead financial advisors, with BofA Securities and Nomura also acting as financial advisors to Collier Creek. Cozen O’Connor is acting as legal counsel to Utz and Kirkland & Ellis LLP is acting as legal counsel to Collier Creek.
About Utz
Utz Brands, Inc. (NYSE: UTZ) manufactures a diverse portfolio of savory snacks under popular brands such as Utz®, Zapp’s®, Golden Flake®, Good Health®, Boulder Canyon®, Hawaiian® Brand and TORTIYAHS!®, among others. .
After nearly a century, with a strong family heritage, Utz continues to have a passion to excite and delight consumers with delicious snacks made with premium ingredients. Utz’s products are distributed nationally and internationally through grocery stores, mass merchants, clubs, convenience stores, drug stores and other channels. Based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, Utz operates fourteen facilities located in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Washington and Massachusetts. For more information, please visit www.utzsnacks.com or call 1‐800‐FOR‐SNAX.
About Collier Creek
Collier Creek is a special purpose acquisition company that completed its IPO in October 2018, raising proceeds of $440 million. Collier Creek was formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, stock exchange, asset acquisition, stock purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. Collier Creek was co-founded by Roger K. Deromedi, Chinh E. Chu and Jason K Giordano, who bring over 80 years of combined investing and operating experience, with a focus on the consumer goods industry . Mr. Deromedi is the former Chairman of the Board of Pinnacle Foods and former CEO of Kraft Foods. Mr. Chu and Mr. Giordano are Senior Managing Directors of CC Capital, a private investment company.
Forward-looking statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The actual results of Collier Creek and Utz may differ from their expectations, estimates and projections. and, therefore, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as “expect”, “estimate”, “project”, “budget”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “intend”, “plan”, “may”, “will” , “could”, “should”, “believes”, “predicts”, “potential”, “continues” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, Collier Creek’s and Utz’s expectations regarding the future performance and anticipated financial impacts of the proposed business combination, the satisfaction of closing conditions of the business combination and the timing of the completion of the business combination. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expected results. Most of these factors are beyond the control of Collier Creek and Utz and are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (1) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be brought against Collier Creek and Utz as a result of the consummation of the business combination; (2) the inability to maintain the post-business combination company’s common stock listing on the New York Stock Exchange following the business combination; (3) the risk that the business combination will disrupt current plans and operations; (4) the ability to recognize the expected benefits of the business combination, which may be affected by, among other things, competition, the ability of the combined company to grow and manage growth profitably and to retain its key employees ; (5) costs related to the business combination; (6) changes in applicable laws or regulations; (7) the possibility that Utz Brands may be adversely affected by other economic, business and/or competitive factors; and (8) other risks and uncertainties disclosed from time to time in the proxy statement/prospectus relating to the business combination, including those included in the “Risk Factors” section and other filings. by Collier Creek with the SEC. Some of these risks and uncertainties may in the future be magnified by the COVID-19 outbreak and there may be additional risks that Utz Brands considers immaterial or that are unknown. It is not possible to predict or identify all of these risks. Utz Brands cautions that the above list of factors is not exclusive. Utz Brands cautions readers not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Utz Brands neither undertakes nor accepts any obligation or undertaking to issue updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances about which any such statement is made. based, unless otherwise required by law.
