Potato chip maker Utz Brands went public Monday after 99 years in business.
"This was a great time to go public," CEO Dylan Lissette told Cheddar. "We've been around for almost a hundred years. It's a fourth generation business that was transferring into the fifth generation. We were approaching about a billion dollars in sales."
Utz has spent the last decade building a national presence through targeted acquisitions of popular regional brands such as Zapp's kettle chips, Boulder Canyon kettle chips, and Golden Flake chips.
The Pennsylvania-based company is now the fourth-largest salty snack brand behind PepsiCo, Campbell, and Kellogg.
But Utz fueled its acquisition spree with millions in debt, which partially explains its route to the public market.
Rather than an initial public offering, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Collier Creek Holdings merged with Utz, contributing $488 million in cash in the process.
About half of that amount will go toward paying down debts.
"Irregardless if we came public through a SPAC or through a traditional IPO, we're a public company today under UTZ on the New York Stock Exchange," Lissette said. "Investors that have clamored to want to be a part of Utz for decades now can buy into the stock and be a part of our future."
The CEO also said sales "went through the roof" back in March at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with top brands such as Zapps and Utz potato chips jumping 15 to 20 percent.
Now he's banking on Utz continuing to grow with the always-popular snack category.
"The snacking category is a great category," he said. "It grows 3-4 percent a year. It's done that through recession. It's done that through boom times. It's really just a simple pleasure."
A big-screen adaptation of the anime “Chainsaw Man” has topped the North American box office, beating a Springsteen biopic and “Black Phone 2.” The movie earned $17.25 million in the U.S. and Canada this weekend. “Black Phone 2” fell to second place with $13 million. Two new releases, the rom-com “Regretting You” and “Springsteen — Deliver Me From Nowhere,” earned $12.85 million and $9.1 million, respectively. “Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc” is based on the manga series about a demon hunter. It's another win for Sony-owned Crunchyroll, which also released a “Demon Slayer” film last month that debuted to a record $70 million.
The Federal Aviation Administration says flights departing for Los Angeles International Airport were halted briefly due to a staffing shortage at a Southern California air traffic facility. The FAA issued a temporary ground stop at one of the world’s busiest airports on Sunday morning soon after U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy predicted that travelers would see more flights delayed as the nation’s air traffic controllers work without pay during the federal government shutdown. The hold on planes taking off for LAX lasted an hour and 45 minutes and didn't appear to cause continued problems. The FAA said staffing shortages also delayed planes headed to Washington, Chicago and Newark, New Jersey on Sunday.
Boeing workers at three Midwest plants where military aircraft and weapons are developed have voted to reject the company’s latest contract offer and to continue a strike that started almost three months ago. The strike by about 3,200 machinists at the plants in the Missouri cities of St. Louis and St. Charles, and in Mascoutah, Illinois, is smaller in scale than a walkout last year by 33,000 Boeing workers who assemble commercial jetliners. The president of the International Association of Machinists says Sunday's outcome shows Boeing hasn't adequately addressed wages and retirement benefits. Boeing says Sunday's vote was close with 51% of union members opposing the revised offer.
