Frito-Lay Frito-Lay 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 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
The Smith's Snackfood Company (green packet), Barbecue (orange packet) and Cheese & Onion (yellow packet) have remained the mainstay flavours of the brand since the 1980s. Many other 'limited edition' variants have also been tried over the years. Seven years later, Associated Products and Distribution Pty Ltd (APD), partnered with PepsiCo beverages Ltd, which had built up a significant snack food company that sold chips and nuts and bought a 41.5% share of Smith's Potato Crisps (Australia)'s parent company. Over the next 20 years, other takeovers and new products (including Twisties and Burger Rings brands) drove growth. PepsiCo took over the company in 1998.