PepsiCo, Inc. history, company profile (overview) and history video
PepsiCo, Inc. is a multinational food, snack, and beverage company headquartered in Harrison, New York, United States. Its beverage and convenient foods portfolio includes Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, SodaStream, and others.
HISTORY
The recipe for Pepsi (the soft drink), was first developed in the 1880s by a pharmacist and industrialist from New Bern, North Carolina, named Caleb Bradham – who called it “Pepsi-Cola” in 1898. As the cola developed in popularity, he created the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1902 and registered a patent for his recipe in 1903. The Pepsi-Cola Company was first incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1919. The company went bankrupt in 1931 and on June 8 of that year, the trademark and syrup recipe were purchased by Charles Guth who owned a syrup manufacturing business in Baltimore, Maryland. Guth was also the president of Loft, Incorporated, a leading candy manufacturer, and he used the company’s labs and chemists to reformulate the syrup. He further contracted to stock the soda in Loft’s large chain of candy shops and restaurants, which were known for their soda fountains, used Loft resources to promote Pepsi, and moved the soda company to a location close by Loft’s own facilities in New York City. In 1935, the shareholders of Loft sued Guth for his 91% stake of Pepsi-Cola Company in the landmark case Guth v. Loft Inc. Loft won the suit and on May 29, 1941 formally absorbed Pepsi into Loft, which was then re-branded as Pepsi-Cola Company that same year. (Loft restaurants and candy stores were spun off at this time.) In the early 1960s, the company’s product lines expanded with the creation of Diet Pepsi and purchase of Mountain Dew.Origins
In 1965, the Pepsi-Cola Company merged with Frito-Lay, Inc. to become PepsiCo, Inc., the company it is known as at present. At the time of its foundation, PepsiCo was incorporated in the state of Delaware and headquartered in Manhattan, New York. The company’s headquarters were relocated to its still-current location of Purchase, New York in 1970, and in 1986 PepsiCo was reincorporated in the state of North Carolina.
Frito-Lay’s origins date back to 1932 when Herman W. Lay began a potato chip business in Nashville, Tennessee. Soon after that, he purchased the manufacturer and formed H.W. Lay & Company. The company merged with the Frito Company, becoming Frito-Lay Inc. in 1961.
PepsiCo was the first company to stamp expiration dates, starting in March 1994.
Between the late-1970s and the mid-1990s, PepsiCo expanded via acquisition of businesses outside of its core focus of packaged food and beverage brands; however it exited these non-core business lines largely in 1997, selling some, and spinning off others into a new company named Tricon Global Restaurants, which later became known as Yum! Brand, Inc. PepsiCo also previously owned several other brands that it later sold so it could focus on its primary snack food and beverage lines, according to investment analysts reporting on the divestments in 1997. Brands formerly owned by PepsiCo include: Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, Hot ‘n Now, East Side Mario’s, D’Angelo Sandwich Shops, Chevys Fresh Mex, California Pizza Kitchen, Stolichnaya(via licensed agreement), Wilson Sporting Goods and North American Van Lines.
The divestments concluding in 1997 were followed by multiple large-scale acquisitions, as PepsiCo began to extend its operations beyond soft drinks and snack foods into other lines of foods and beverages. PepsiCo purchased the orange juice company Tropicana Products in 1998, and merged with Quaker Oats Company in 2001, adding with it the Gatorade sports drink line and other Quaker Oats brands such as Chewy Granola Bars and Aunt Jemima, among others.
In August 2009, PepsiCo made a $7 billion offer to acquire the two largest bottlers of its products in North America: Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas. In 2010 this acquisition was completed, resulting in the formation of a new wholly-owned subsidiary of PepsiCo, Pepsi Beverages Company.
In February 2011, the company made its largest international acquisition by purchasing a two-thirds (majority) stake in Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods, a Russian food company that produces milk, yogurt, fruit juices, and dairy products. When it acquired the remaining 23% stake of Wimm-Bill-Dann Foods in October 2011, PepsiCo became the largest food and beverage company in Russia.
PRODUCTS
- Lay’s;
- Doritos;
- Cheetos;
- Gatorade;
- Pepsi-Cola;
- Mountain Dew;
- Quaker;
- SodaStream;
- Tostitos;
- Mirinda;
- Walkers;
- Aquafina;
- Off the eaten path.
With more than 265,000 employees, PepsiCo, Inc. is considered one of the largest food and beverage businesses in the world. According to Forbes, it is considered one of the Largest Public Companies in the World.
*Information from Forbes.com, Wikipedia.org, and www.pepsico.com.
**Video published on YouTube by “Alux.com“