Business Description

Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this Annual Report on Form 10-K to the “Company,” “we,” “us” or "our” refer to Utz Brands, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Our core geographies consist of Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia, with the rest of the U.S. representing our expansion geographies. Overview We were founded in 1921 in Hanover, Pennsylvania and benefit from over 100 years of brand awareness and heritage in the salty snack industry. We are a leading United States manufacturer of branded salty snacks, producing a broad offering of salty snacks, including potato chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cheese snacks, pork skins, pub/party mixes and other snacks. Our iconic portfolio of authentic, craft and “better-for-you” ("BFY") brands includes Utz®, On The Border ® , Zapp’s®, Boulder Canyon®, Golden Flake®, Hawaiian® Brand and Miguelito's®, among others, and enjoys strong household penetration in the United States, where our products can be found in approximately 50% of U.S. households as of December 28, 2025. As of December 28, 2025, we operate eight primary manufacturing facilities across the United States with a broad range of capabilities. Our products are distributed nationally to grocery, mass merchant, club, convenience, drug and other retailers through direct shipments, distributors and approximately 2,500 direct-store delivery ("DSD") routes. We have historically expanded our geographic reach and product portfolio organically and through acquisitions. Based on 2025 retail sales, we are the second-largest producer of branded salty snacks in our collective core geographies of Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia (our “Core Geographies,” and all other states in the United States, our “Expansion Geographies”), where we have acquired strong regional brands and distribution capabilities in recent years. Our business benefits from multiple opportunities to deliver attractive long-term profitable growth. Our value creation strategies are focused on driving productivity to enhance margins, reinvesting in marketing and innovation to accelerate revenue growth and continuing to make strategic acquisitions. We believe we are well-positioned for long-term growth in the salty snack industry as we (a) gained a significant amount of new customers over the past several years, (b) have significant opportunity in our Expansion Geographies and under-penetrated channels, (c) continue to execute productivity efforts that we believe will help to fuel incremental marketing and innovation to accelerate growth in sales relative to our peers, (d) continue to make infrastructure improvements to enable us to continue to scale to greater heights, and (e) continue to make strategic acquisitions that deliver strong synergies and that enhance our competitive positioning. We believe each of these growth avenues represents a sizeable opportunity to expand our net sales. In addition, we further anticipate expanding our margins over the long term through supply chain productivity, revenue management, a higher-margin product mix, and higher margins on incremental sales as we leverage our scalable existing platform. Recent Acquisitions and Dispositions The Company has focused on increasing manufacturing and streamlining distribution. During fiscal years 2023 and 2024, the Company bought out and terminated the contracts of multiple distributors who had previously been providing services to the Company. These transactions were accounted for as asset purchases and contract terminations, respectively, and resulted in expense of $1.5 million and $2.1 million for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2023 and December 29, 2024, respectively. 7 On February 5, 2024, the Company sold certain assets and brands to affiliates of Our Home™, an operating company of Better-for-You brands (“Our Home”). Under the agreement, affiliates of Our Home purchased the Good Health and R.W.…