HANOVER, PA. — Utz Brands, Inc. plans to close its manufacturing plant in Hanover and sell idled manufacturing plants in Gramercy, La., and Birmingham, Ala. The actions are expected to simplify the company’s existing plant network and streamline its operating structure by consolidating volume into a smaller number of facilities, which will reduce costs.

Following the actions, Hanover-based Utz will have 13 active plants.

The Hanover plant, the company plant with the lowest manufacturing volume, will cease operations in the first quarter of 2024. The Hanover plant manufactures kettle chips and produces Utz, Grandma Utz and Zapp’s branded products. Utz Brands has expanded its kettle chip manufacturing capacity across its network and has plans for future kettle chip production at a plant in Kings Mountain, NC.

Utz has signed a built-to-suit agreement for a leased distribution center of about 650,000 square feet in Hanover. The center is expected to open in the first quarter of 2025. Utz has outgrown its existing warehouse network infrastructure in Hanover through which it delivers a majority of its volume, according to the company. The center, called the Northeast Logistics Center, will be adjacent to the company’s High Street and Kindig Lane facilities.

Utz idled the Louisiana plant because it suffered irreparable damage from Hurricane Ida in 2021. Utz closed the Alabama plant in June of this year. The plant manufactured snacks under the Golden Flake brand.

In one other move, Utz sold a plant in Bluffton, Ind., to Super-Pufft Snacks USA, Inc. and its affiliated entities. Super-Pufft, which is a co-manufacturing partner of Utz, received real estate and manufacturing assets. The plant in Bluffton makes products associated with the TGIF brand as well as some of Utz’s kettle chip brands.