HANOVER, PA. — Utz Quality Foods, LLC posted record sales in the second quarter as new households bought up its broad line of snacks, including potato chips, pretzels, veggie stix/straws and popcorn.
Pro forma net sales in the second quarter ended June 28 totaled $242 million, up 11% from $218 million in the same period a year ago. The company also recorded an increase in further adjusted EBITDA, which rose 15% to $33 million.
“I am incredibly proud of the resilience of our team during a dynamic operating environment, which resulted in record sales for the quarter,” said Dylan Lissette, chief executive officer of Utz. “These results demonstrate Utz’s ability to generate sustained business momentum in the salty snacks industry, and we believe we are well positioned for continued growth in 2020 and beyond.”
Snack maker Utz Quality Foods, LLC in June entered into a definitive agreement with Collier Creek Holdings, a special purpose acquisition company, to form Utz Brands, Inc., a leading pure-play snack food platform. After nearly a century as a family-owned, privately-held company, the transaction will introduce Utz as a publicly listed company, with an expected initial enterprise value of approximately $1.56 billion, or 11.6x its estimated 2021 pro forma adjusted EBITDA of $134 million. It is expected Utz Brands will trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “UTZ” sometime during the third quarter.
“Utz’s impressive second-quarter results underscore our confidence in the business and its strong future growth trajectory,” said Roger Deromedi, co-founder of Collier Creek and future chairman of Utz Brands, Inc.
Collier Creek said it expects 2020 pro forma net sales of $932 million for Utz, which, if realized, would be an 8% increase over 2019 sales of $866 million. Collier Creek is not updating its previously provided 2020 further adjusted EBITDA projection of $124 million for Utz, though, noting the projection “reflects incremental marketing and brand building investments that Utz intends to make to retain the new households eating Utz products that were generated during COVID-19 and to accelerate future growth.”