Boulder Canyon is owned by Utz Brands (the United States, NYSE: UTZ), which acquired the brand on 14 December 2017 for $165 million.[1][2] Boulder Canyon was founded in 1994 in Boulder, Colorado and was independent until 2017.
Boulder Canyon makes kettle crisps cooked in avocado and olive oil, positioned at the natural end of the salty snack aisle. Utz acquired it with Inventure Foods in 2017. Cooking in those oils rather than in conventional vegetable oil costs considerably more, which is why the brand sits at a premium price in natural grocery.
What Utz Brands's annual report says about Boulder Canyon
Sentences about Boulder Canyon from Utz Brands's latest annual filing[1], copied word for word.
Our Boulder Canyon brand anchors our position in the BFY category of salty snacking, which has been a high-growth category in recent years.
Boulder Canyon offers a line of premium BFY potato chips, including those made with olive or avocado oils.
In the Natural channel as defined by SPINS, LLC, Boulder Canyon is the #1 salty snacks brand, growing 36.9% within the channel in 2025, and its "Canyon Cut" rippled avocado oil-based kettle-style chip is the #1 selling salty snack item as of December 28, 2025.
How often Utz Brands names Boulder Canyon in its annual report
A plain count of the times the name appears in the text of each annual report, not counting the start of a sentence. A brand that an owner writes about more is usually one it treats as central. The brand is named more often than it was three years earlier.
Utz Brands is a publicly listed company headquartered in Hanover, Pennsylvania, United States, founded in 1921. Brandtree records 3 brands under its control, and it is listed as NYSE: UTZ.
Utz was founded in 1921 in a Pennsylvania summer kitchen, where a couple made fifty pounds of crisps a day. It stayed family-owned for nearly a century before listing in 2020, and it has since bought several regional American snack brands with strong local followings.
Brandtree records a controlling owner for 2,549 brands that began in the United States.
478 of them (19%) are now controlled by a company headquartered in another country; Boulder Canyon is not one of them.
Intersnack Group of Düsseldorf agreed to take Utz Brands private for $14.25 a share in cash, an enterprise value of about $2.9 billion. After closing, Utz would be owned 50 per cent by entities of the Rice and Lissette families, descendants of its founders, and 50 per cent by Intersnack, whose own brands include Chio, Hula Hoops, McCoy's, Tyrrells and Tayto. The family would stay as half-owner rather than sell out.
Utz acquired Inventure Foods for about $165 million, bringing Boulder Canyon into the group. Boulder Canyon cooks its crisps in avocado and olive oil rather than conventional vegetable oil, which costs considerably more and is why it sits at a premium price in natural grocery.
The parent company of Boulder Canyon is Utz Brands, a publicly listed company headquartered in the United States.
Is Boulder Canyon American?
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Yes. Boulder Canyon originated in the United States in 1994 and its owner, Utz Brands, is also headquartered in the United States.
When did Utz Brands buy Boulder Canyon?
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Utz Brands completed its acquisition of Boulder Canyon on 14 December 2017, after announcing the deal on 26 October 2017. The deal was valued at $165 million (enterprise value).
Who owned Boulder Canyon before Utz Brands?
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Boulder Canyon was an independent company from its founding in 1994 in Boulder, Colorado until Utz Brands acquired it in 2017.
Is Boulder Canyon still owned by Utz Brands?
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Yes. As of 10 October 2026, Boulder Canyon is still owned by Utz Brands. The ownership record was last checked against primary sources on that date.
Sources (3) & corrections
Last verified . Every ownership fact above is backed by one of these primary documents. Numbers in brackets in the text refer to this list.
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