PepsiCo, Inc., is a major United States producer of beverages, snack foods, and other food products. The corporation was formed in 1965 through the merger of the Pepsi-Cola Company with Frito-Lay, Inc. Its carbonated soft-drink brands include Pepsi-Cola, Mug root beer, and Mountain Dew and Sierra Mist citrus drinks. The company also sells a variety of bottled waters, juices, teas, energy drinks, and sports drinks under the brand names Aquafina, SoBe, Tava, and Gatorade. Snack-food brands marketed by the Frito-Lay division include Cheetos, Doritos, Cracker Jack, Lay’s, and Rold Gold. PepsiCo, Inc., is headquartered in Purchase, New York.
Caleb Bradham, a pharmacist in New Bern, North Carolina, invented Pepsi-Cola in 1898. He established the Pepsi-Cola Company in 1902 to produce syrup for soda fountains. Bradham began bottling Pepsi-Cola in 1904, and he started selling bottling franchises in 1905. Today, Pepsi-Cola brands are available in nearly all countries.
Frito-Lay was formed in 1961 through the merger of the Frito Company and the H. W. Lay Company. Elmer Doolin founded the Frito Company in 1932 after purchasing the recipe for a corn chip he had tried in a San Antonio cafe. That same year, Herman Lay began distributing potato chips in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1938, he purchased an Atlanta, Georgia, company whose chips he distributed and changed its name to the H. W. Lay Company.
PepsiCo purchased Tropicana, a major marketer of juices and juice drinks, in 1998. In 2001, it acquired the Quaker Oats Company, a producer of breakfast cereals and other packaged foods, including Gatorade sports drinks.
