Bloomberg is reporting that “blank-check” firm Collier Creek Holdings is in talks to acquire Pennsylvania-based snack company Utz Quality Foods, which owns iconic Alabama chip maker Golden Flake.
Sources told the outlet that the deal values Utz at more than $1 billion and could be reached by the end of the month. Bloomberg said as of now, nothing is set in stone and the deal could still fall through.
Collier declined to comment to the outlet about the merger.
An Utz representative told the York Dispatch that the company does not comment on merger speculation.
Utz has been family-managed and privately owned since its inception but has been the acquiring force behind other mergers. Most recently, Utz bought rival snack company Snyder of Berlin, then owned by ConAgra Foods Inc., last fall and Illinois snack food company Kitchen Cooked Inc., earlier this year. Terms of both deals were not disclosed.
Utz bought Birmingham-based Golden Enterprises, Golden Flake’s parent company, for $141 million in 2016. Golden Flake was founded in 1923 in the basement of a Hill’s Grocery store in north Birmingham.
Bloomberg reports that Collier Creek Holdings is a “special purpose acquisition company” whose founders include someone from Pinnacle Foods Inc., and two people who previously worked for investment firm Blackstone.
AL.com contributed to this report.