Utz Quality Foods, Inc.
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| Product type | Snack foods |
|---|---|
| Owner | Michael W. Rice |
| Country | US |
| Introduced | 1921 |
| Previous owners | William and Salie Utz (1921) Francis X. Rice (1968) |
| Website | http://www.utzsnacks.com/ |
Utz Quality Foods, Inc. /ˈʌts/, based in Hanover, Pennsylvania, is the largest independent privately held snack brand in the United States. The company was founded in 1921 and distributes a variety of potato chips and other snack foods throughout the United States.
Utz Quality Foods began in 1921 as "Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips" when William and Salie Utz began making potato chips out of their home in Hanover, Pennsylvania, with an initial investment of $300. The hand-operated equipment used at the time produced approximately 50 pounds of potato chips per hour. After Salie cooked the chips, Bill delivered them to local grocery stores and farmers’ markets in the Hanover and Baltimore, Maryland, areas.
Success soon allowed Bill and Salie to move operations to a small concrete building in the family’s backyard. In 1938, production was boosted with the purchase of an automatic fryer capable of producing 300 pounds of chips per hour.
In 1938, Francis Xavier "F.X." Rice joined the Utz Company after marrying Arlene Utz, William and Salie Utz’s daughter. In 1949, post-war success allowed the company to build a new production facility on 10 acres (40,000 m2) in Hanover. F.X. Rice became president of the company in 1968, after the death of Salie Utz in 1965 and Bill Utz three years later.
The 1970s began with the 50th Anniversary celebration of the company and saw the purchase of two more Hanover-based production facilities. F.X. Rice retired in 1978. The Rices’ son, Michael W. Rice, succeeded F.X. as company president, while Arlene Utz Rice remained as the company’s board chairperson. Utz’s largest production facility and home of its current administrative headquarters was completed in 1983.
In the late 1980s, sales of Utz pretzels began growing by 20 percent annually and, by 1991, pretzel sales comprised almost 10 percent of total revenue. In the summer of 1992, Utz added a third pretzel oven and began baking pretzels around the clock. By the middle of the decade, annual sales of Utz products topped $100 million and its employee base had reached 1,000.
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