Utz Quality Foods & Metropoulos & Co. form partnership
Utz Quality Foods, LLC, the largest independent salty snack company in the United States, and Metropoulos & Co., the family-owned investment firm specializing in iconic American brands and assets, have 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 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 expanding its distribution and geographic footprint.