December 7/Charlotte, N.C./PRNewswire-FirstCall -- Lance Inc. and Snyder's of Hanover Inc. announced the completion of their merger, first announced on July 22, 2010. The transaction brings together Snyder's, a manufacturer of pretzels and leader in specialty snacks that traces its roots to 1909, with Lance, a U.S. snack food manufacturer of sandwich crackers, potato chips, and cookies founded in 1913. The combined company will have a portfolio of snack food brands that includes Snyder's of Hanover(R), Lance(R), Cape Cod(R), Grande(R), Tom's(R), Jays(R), O-Ke-Doke(R), Stella D'oro(R), Krunchers!(R), Archway(R), Naturals(R), as well as Lance Private Brands of private-label cookies and crackers. Products will include pretzels, sandwich crackers, kettle chips, potato chips, cookies, tortilla chips and nuts. The new company, named Snyder's-Lance Inc., will maintain the stock ticker symbol "LNCE" with shares traded on the NASDAQ exchange.
"We are extremely pleased with the opportunity to combine two leading snack food companies in such a strategically compelling merger," said David V. Singer, chief executive officer of the combined company. "Combining our strengths in salty, cracker and cookie snacks creates the opportunity for scale in a number of competitive high volume categories. We will immediately begin the work of bringing our two organizations together in ways that maximize our potential growth and drive lasting value for stockholder, customers, business partners and our employees."