Utz Buys Snack Manufacturing Plant for $38M

Salty snacks supplier Utz Brands Inc. announced Thursday that its subsidiary, Utz Quality Foods LLC, acquired a new snack food manufacturing plant in Kings Mountain, NC from Evans Food Group Ltd.

The deal includes the recently-constructed building, pork-rind production machinery, and land. Utz intends to launch a project to convert the 125,000-sq-ft plant into a snack manufacturing site this year. Evans Food Group does business as Benestar Brands.

“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,” Utz Brands chief operating officer Cary Devore said in a company release. “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 times that we currently outsource to some degree. The transaction increases our operational flexibility and will contribute to higher long-term margins over time, based on identifiable, multi-faceted cost synergies.”

Utz is spending $38.4 million to purchase the location. The expansion of its manufacturing capabilities will support the firm’s growth in the southeast, northeast, and mid-south regions of the United States.

The plant currently houses high-speed pork rind manufacturing lines. Benestar is slated to supply pork pellets from its Chicago facility to Utz.

“As a vertically integrated manufacturer, we believe our operations will be optimized by supplying Utz with our Chicago-based pellet production, while selling the downstream manufacturing operations to Utz,” said Bruce Myers, president of Benestar, in a statement. “This type of partnership will only enhance operations of both companies going forward.”