Big appetites for US snack M&A

Buying opportunity: Snacks are displayed for sale in a back-to-school section at a Walmart store in San Diego, California. — Reuters

FAMILY-owned food companies are stocking up on US snack companies, which are warming to the idea of private backers – many of them overseas – that can help them weather the storm in the supermarket aisles.

Last month, Hanover, Pennsylvania-based potato chip maker Utz agreed to be taken private by Germany’s Intersnack Group along with Utz’s founding families.