Frito-Lay, Inc. is an American subsidiary of PepsiCo that manufactures, markets, and sells corn chips, potato chips, and other snack foods.

The primary snack food brands produced under the Frito-Lay name include Fritos corn chips, Cheetos cheese-flavored snacks; Doritos and Tostitos tortilla chips; Lay’s and Ruffles potato chips; Rold Gold pretzels; and Walkers potato crisps (in the UK and Ireland). Each brand has generated annual worldwide sales of over $1 billion in 2009.

 

 

In 1932, Charles Elmer Doolin, manager of the Highland Park Confectionery in San Antonio, purchased a corn chip recipe, a handheld potato ricer, and 19 retail accounts from a corn chip manufacturer for $100, which he borrowed from his mother. Doolin established a new corn chip business, The Frito Company, in his mother’s kitchen. Doolin and his mother and brother produced the corn chips, named Fritos, and had a production capacity of approximately 10 pounds per day.

 

 

By the end of the year, production lines were operating in Houston and Dallas. The Frito Company headquarters also moved to Dallas to capitalize on the city’s central location and better availability of raw materials. In 1945, The Frito Sales Company was established to separate sales from production activities. Expansion continued with the issue of six franchises through the Frito National Company in the same year.

In 1950, Fritos were sold in all 48 states. The Frito Company issued its first public stock offering in 1954. At the time of Doolin’s death in 1959, The Frito Company produced over forty products, had plants in eighteen cities, employed over 3,000 people and had sales in 1958 in excess of $50 million. By 1962, Fritos would be sold in 48 countries.

 

 

In February 1965, the boards of directors for Frito-lay, Inc. and Pepsi-Cola announced a plan for the merger of the two companies. On June 8, 1965, the merger of Frito-Lay and Pepsi-Cola Company was approved by shareholders of both companies, and a new company called PepsiCo, Inc. was formed. At the time of the merger, Frito-Lay owned 46 manufacturing plants nationwide and had more than 150 distribution centers across the United States.

 

 

Through Frito-Lay, PepsiCo is the largest globally distributed snack food company, with sales of its products in 2009 comprising 40 percent of all “savory snacks” sold in the United States, and 30 percent of the non-U.S. market. In 2018, Frito-Lay North America accounted for 25 percent of PepsiCo’s annual sales. According to Statista, Frito – Lay is the best – selling potato chip brand in the US, with sales of about 4.81 billion U.S. dollars in 2020.

According to Statista; companieshistory.com and en.wikipedia

 

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