Utz Connects Multiple Locations to Support Growth
Utz Quality Foods, Inc. is using Comcast Business Ethernet and Business Trunks to connect multiple office locations and distribution centers throughout the Eastern United States. Comcast Business is a unit of Comcast Cable. In addition to taking advantage of more bandwidth and saving on its Internet and voice connectivity costs, Utz can also utilize these new fiber-based services to quickly scale up from its existing 20 Mbps service to as much as 1 Gbps of bandwidth capacity to meet its business demands as the company continues to grow.
"Comcast Business has been right there with us each step of the way, acting as a true business partner and giving us the same dedicated service that we provide to our customers. Knowing that we can also scale up our bandwidth to as high as 1 Gbps in a matter of days - not weeks - gives us the ability to react quickly so that we can continue putting our customers first, as we always have," says J. Ed Smith, chief information director for Utz Quality Foods, Inc. "In aggregate, we realized a significant savings, while enjoying more bandwidth than what our T1 lines had given us. In our opinion, there is both tangible and intangible value in working with Comcast, which is the recipe for a true business partner!"
Founded in 1921, Utz Quality Foods, Inc. is a high-quality manufacturer of potato chips, pretzels, cheese curls, popcorn, party mix, and other snack foods. Headquartered in Hanover, Pa., the company produces approximately 1.5 million pounds of potato chips and 850,000 pounds of pretzels every week at its nine manufacturing plants across the U.S. These products are then delivered to supermarkets, convenience stores, and other retail locations from Utz's more than 50 distribution centers primarily in the Eastern United States.
With its recent acquisitions of three major regional brands and distribution networks - Zapp's Potato Chips, Wachusett Potato Chip, and The Bachman Co. - within the past 24 months, Utz realized it needed to reassess its existing wide area voice and data networking infrastructure to replace its old T1 lines. The company looked to Comcast Business to connect its new regionally-dispersed employee offices, supplier locations, and distribution centers in a way that would also provide the bandwidth Utz knew it needed for future growth.
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