Closing Your Deal
Utz Quality Foods, Inc. manufactures approximately 90 varieties or flavors of snacks and sells more than $500 million dollars of snacks a year. It is the largest independent family-owned snack food company in the country. Until recently, however, Utz’s production and distribution centers were all based in the Mid-Atlantic region, which limited the company’s ability to produce and sell products nationally. That changed in April 2011 with Utz’s purchase of Zappe Endeavors, the maker of the nationally distributed “Dirty” Chips brand of kettle-cooked potato chips and Zapp’s Potato Chips. Utz acquired Zappe’s manufacturing plants in Louisiana, California and Pennsylvania, enabling the company to extend its reach; it also acquired Zappe’s niche chip brands, facilitating Utz’s move into less traditional markets. Specialists from Cozen O’Connor’s corporate, tax, labor, intellectual property, environmental, and real estate groups worked jointly across multiple offices to complete the deal. The Cozen O’Connor team also helped foster a cooperative dynamic that made for a smooth transaction.