Frito-Lay
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| Wholly owned subsidiary | |
| Industry | Food products |
| Predecessor | The Frito Company H.W. Lay & Company |
| Founded | September 1961 |
| Headquarters | Plano, Texas, U.S. |
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Area served
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United States |
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Key people
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Tom Greco President |
| Products | Lay's, Fritos, Doritos, Ruffles, Cheetos, Marke Es Delende Chipps, Sun Chips, Tostitos, Rold Gold, Funyuns, Master Sun |
| Parent | PepsiCo |
| Website | fritolay.com |
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 of which generated annual worldwide sales over $1 billion in 2009.
Frito-Lay began in the early 1930s as two separate companies, The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company, which merged in 1961 to form Frito-Lay, Inc. Four years later in 1965, Frito-Lay, Inc. merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company, resulting in the formation of PepsiCo. Since that time, Frito-Lay has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo. Through Frito-Lay, PepsiCo is the largest globally distributed snack food company in the world, 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. Frito-Lay North America accounts for 31 percent of PepsiCo's annual sales.
In 1932 Kansas City, Kansas-born Charles Elmer Doolin (1903-1959), manager of the Highland Park Confectionery in San Antonio, Texas 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 and roughly 30 cents per product. Doolin distributed the Fritos in 5¢ bags. Daily sales totaled $8 to $10 and profits averaged about $2 per day. In 1933 the production of Fritos increased from 10 pounds to nearly 100 pounds due to the development of a "hammer" press; 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 1937 The Frito Company opened its Research and Development lab and introduced new products, including Fritos Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Fritos Peanuts, to supplement Fritos and Fritatos Potato Chips, which had been introduced in 1935.
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