Utz Brands (NYSE: UTZ) reported Q4 EPS of ($0.13), $0.22 worse than the analyst estimate of $0.09. Revenue for the quarter came in at $246.3 million versus the consensus estimate of $243 million.

“2020 was a transformational year for Utz. We began our new chapter as a publicly traded company, and we delivered double-digit retail sales growth, making Utz the #3 brand platform in U.S. Salty Snacks and one of the fastest growing salty snack platforms of scale. Growth was led by our Power Brands and we added three million more buyers during the year. Despite the challenges of the pandemic and the demanding environment for our team, we reacted quickly and put protocols in place to protect our associates and customers, which enabled us to deliver these strong results,” said Dylan Lissette, Chief Executive Officer of Utz. “Looking ahead, we remain excited about our opportunity for continued long-term profitable growth, as we actively deploy our value creation strategies for the benefit of our stockholders.”

Fiscal Year 2021 Outlook

“We are encouraged with our start to 2021 with solid year-to-date retail sales growth through the end of February. While we will begin to lap strong results from the impact of COVID-19 in the prior year, our brands are well-positioned for long-term growth. Based on the significant increase in new buyers and higher repeat rates of purchase over the past twelve months, we believe that the COVID-19 impact on at-home eating occasions will have a lasting, beneficial impact to long-term demand trends. Our projected pro forma two-year CAGR for fiscal 2020 and 2021 of approximately 6% is well above our stated long-term organic growth outlook of 3 to 4%, and we will continue to invest incremental marketing dollars to build our brands and accelerate revenue growth,” said Cary Devore, Chief Financial Officer of Utz.

“From a cost and margin standpoint, our productivity efforts are on-target and set to double to 2% of COGS in 2021, and we remain on track to ramp up to our previously stated productivity goals of 3-4% of COGS by 2023. In addition, we are implementing pricing initiatives to help offset expected commodity inflation of approximately 4%. We will continue to pursue actions that strengthen our long-term fundamentals, and our goal remains to be the fastest growing, pure-play branded snack platform of scale in the U.S.,” Devore added.

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