Utz Quality Foods acquires Kitchen Cooked

Photo courtesy of Utz Quality Foods

HANOVER, PA — Utz Quality Foods acquired the Kitchen Cooked Inc. snack food brand, direct store delivery operations and manufacturing operations.

Kitchen Cooked, based in Farmington, Illinois, is a snack food manufacturer and marketer serving central Illinois and eastern Iowa. Its products include potato chips, popcorn and pretzels.

“Since the 1930s, Kitchen Cooked has brought a strong following and a unique artisan heritage to its core markets,” said Dylan Lissette, CEO of Utz. “Their distribution and manufacturing capabilities, as well as their customer relationships, enhance our ability to grow our portfolio of Utz brands further west.“

Paul Blackhurst, vice president of Kitchen Cooked, said the partnership will create a stronger manufacturing and distribution network throughout Illinois and eastern Iowa. The companies each have nearly a century of experience in providing “tasty snacks to our communities,” he said.

Earlier in 2019, Utz acquired the direct-to-store snack delivery business of Conagra Brands Inc., Chicago.

Utz, Hanover, Pennsylvania, is the largest privately owned, family-owned savory snack business in the United States, according to the company. Its products include potato chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins and onion rings, and its brands include Utz, Golden Flake, Zapp’s, Dirty Potato Chips, Snikiddy and more.

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