Milling & Baking News - June 16, 2020 - 18

Business

Collier transaction to reintroduce
Utz as publicly traded company
Continued from Page 1

direct-store delivery snacks business,
which includes the Tim's Cascade Snacks,
Hawaiian Snacks, Erin's, El Restaurante,
Snyder's of Berlin, Pop-N-Thin and Husman's brands. The company operates 14
manufacturing facilities nationwide.
The transaction has been unanimously
approved by the board of directors of
Collier Creek and the board of managers
of Utz and is expected to close in the third
quarter of 2020, subject to the satisfaction
of customary closing conditions including approval of Collier Creek shareholders. Upon closing of the transaction, Collier Creek will become a Delaware corporation, and its name will be changed to
Utz Brands, Inc.
Dylan Lissette, chief executive officer
of Utz since 2013, will continue to lead
the business with the existing management team, and the company will remain
headquartered in Hanover.
"As we approach our 100-year anniversary, we are excited to take this important
step forward to position Utz for its next
century of growth," Mr. Lissette said.
"This transaction enables Utz to continue
its long-term growth plans and provides
greater access to capital to fund organic
and inorganic growth. We remain deeply
committed to Utz's continued success."
Utz plans to use proceeds from the
transaction to repay existing borrowings.
The founding family and owners of the
company will retain more than 90% of its
existing equity stake, representing more
than 50% ownership in Utz Brands upon
completion of the transaction.
Collier Creek founders include Chinh
E. Chu and Jason K. Giordano, senior
managing directors of private investment firm CC Capital, and Roger K. Deromedi, former CEO of Kraft Foods in the
early 2000s and more recently chairman
of Pinnacle Foods.
In a June 5 conference call, Mr. Giordano

BUSINESSWIRE

18 / June 16, 2020

Milling & Baking News

pointed to numerous key reasons Utz is a
good fit for Collier Creek.
"First, Utz is a leader in the attractive
and growing salty snacks category, which
represented $26 billion in retail sales in
2019 and has grown at more than a 4%
CAGR over the last five years," Mr. Giordano said. "Importantly, the category has
been historically resilient to economic

expansion in adjacent product lines and
sub-categories," he said. "Second, enhancing margins through supply chain
productivity and cost savings, including
the $50 million of identified potential
opportunities, ... revenue management
initiatives, and an ongoing mix shift to
higher-margin power brands. And last
by continuing to make value-enhancing
acquisitions, leveraging Utz's scalable
infrastructure to capture strong synergies. Over the last 10 years, Utz has completed 11 strategic acquisitions with an

Collier Creek founders include Chinh E. Chu, left, and Jason K. Giordano, center, senior managing directors of private investment firm CC Capital, and Roger K. Deromedi, a prominent
consumer packaged foods industry executive.

downturns, having grown at a 4% CAGR
during the Great Recession years from
2007-2010, and ... the category has performed extremely well through the recent
COVID-19 pandemic and its related economic disruptions.
"Second, Utz has significant competitive moats that provide a strong and defensible competitive position. As a nearly
100-year-old branded food company, Utz
has a portfolio of iconic brands with substantial consumer awareness and loyalty
built over many years. However, in addition to this, Utz has an added competitive
advantage in the form of its efficient and
highly-scalable DSD and warehouse distribution system."
Mr. Giordano said Utz is one of the few
branded manufacturers with a scale DSD
distribution network, and Collier Creek
believes it would be costly and time
consuming for any new entrant to try to
replicate Utz's competitively-advantaged
distribution capabilities.
Third, Collier Creek believes there are
multiple paths to accelerate Utz's growth
trajectory and generate significant value
going forward for shareholders, Mr. Giordano said.
"These include accelerating organic
sales growth through enhanced marketing and innovation behind power
brands, increased distribution in underpenetrated channels and customers, continued geographic expansion
outside Utz core regions, and further

average purchase multiple of less than
8.0x adjusted EBITDA after identified
cost savings - and we believe there remains a robust pipeline of attractive opportunities going forward."
Fourth, Mr. Giordano said there is significant shareholder alignment between
the Collier Creek team and the Rice and
Lissette family.
"We have been working together with
management and the family for the better part of a year, and in that time have
developed a true partnership with commitment from all sides to long-term value
creation and an alignment on a shared
strategy leveraging Collier Creek's wellhoned operating playbook," he said.
"Reflecting their conviction in the future
value-creation opportunity, the existing
owners of Utz will retain approximately
90% of their existing equity, which is
expected to represent slightly over 50%
of the initial economic ownership post
transaction."
Finally, Collier Creek believes the
transaction has an attractive entry valuation of 11.6x 2021 estimated pro forma adjusted EBITDA, and approximately 17.8x
2021 estimated adjusted P/E, representing 1.7x and 2.7x discount to the one-year
average of the peer set, he said.
"These entry multiples do not attempt
to pro forma any identified future cost
savings or value creation initiatives, and
we believe this a compelling entry point
for the company," Mr. Giordano said. MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - June 16, 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Milling & Baking News - June 16, 2020