Last updated on May 17th, 2022
Utz Brands Inc. has purchased a new, recently completed snack food manufacturing facility in Kings Mountain, North Carolina from Evans Food Group, d/b/a Benestar Brands. The purchase includes the existing building, land and pork-rind production equipment.
Utz will convert the space into an operational snack food manufacturing facility starting in 2022. The current 125,000 square foot facility can be expanded to 200,000 square feet and is expected to add more than 115 local jobs.
The Kings Mountain Facility will support the growing demand for Utz’s brands in the Southeast, Northeast and Mid-South regions, which grew 14.4 percent, 14.5 percent and 15.0 percent, respectively, for the 26-week period ending March 20.
The new facility contains high-speed pork rind manufacturing lines and will enable multi-line production across Utz’s key sub-categories in the near future. Operationalizing the recently constructed Kings Mountain Facility is quicker and more cost-effective than building from the ground up or renovating an existing facility.
Benestar will also become a supplier of pork pellets from its Chicago operations to Utz. The transaction is expected to be accretive to earnings within 12-18 months due to the expected strong supply chain cost savings.
“With continued growth and excitement for our snack food brands, we are very excited to expand our roots in North Carolina, where we will be adding over 115 new jobs over time,” said Cary Devore, COO of Utz Brands Inc. “This is a strong step forward in optimizing our plant and logistics network, and it will allow us to in-source manufacturing across several product types that we currently outsource to some degree. This transaction increases our operational flexibility and will contribute to higher long-term margins over time, based on identifiable, multi-faceted cost synergies.”
The company manufactures a portfolio of snacks through brands including Utz, On The Border Chips & Dips, Golden Flake, Zapp’s, Good Health, Boulder Canyon, Hawaiian Brand, and TORTIYAHS!, among others. Its products are distributed nationally through grocery, mass merchandisers, club, convenience, drug and other channels. The company operates 17 facilities in Alabama, Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington.
For more information, visit utzsnacks.com.
