Hershey’s adds SkinnyPop parent company, Amplify to its portfolio

Hershey’s has announced that it has entered an agreement to acquire Austin, Texas-based Amplify Snack Brands. This deal includes all outstanding shares of Amplify for $12.00 per share in cash.

"The acquisition of Amplify and its product portfolio is an important step in our journey to becoming an innovative snacking powerhouse as together it will enable us to bring scale and category management capabilities to a key sub-segment of the warehouse snack aisle," Michele Buck, The Hershey Company president and chief executive officer, said. "Hershey's snack mix and meat snacks products, combined with Amplify's Skinny Pop, Tyrrells, Oatmega, Paqui and other international brands, will allow us to capture more consumer snacking occasions by creating a broader portfolio of brands."   

The Hershey, P.A.-based company believes this acquisition will drive significant shareholder value through growth and margin expansion. Annual rum-rate synergies of approximately $20 million also are expected to be generated over the next two years from cost savings and portfolio optimization, the company said.

"Since Amplify's inception in 2014, our company's goal has been to bring transparency to our products, and clean ingredients and great tasting snacks to consumers," Tom Ennis, Amplify Snack Brands, president and chief executive officer. "This transaction is a continuation of our mission as Hershey also believes in bringing to consumers great-tasting snacks made with the best ingredients possible. Hershey is a great cultural partner for Amplify and I'm excited for our team who will have access to Hershey's marketing and go-to-market resources to take our brands to the next level."