Snack Chat

Lay's Kettle Cooked Chips Introduces Crinkle Cut

In Marketing, it's often hard to figure out what is a long-term, sustainable trend and what is just a fad. Our Lay’s Kettle Cooked potato chips have seen both sides of this dilemma. 

Kettle-cooked potato chips, which are thicker-cut chips compared to regular potato chips and are cooked in small batches to offer a hard-bite crunch, have long been a big hit in central Pennsylvania, and in the late 1980s, their popularity spread across the country.  At Frito-Lay, our Lay’s Kettle Cooked business grew double digits for several years, until the national market went into a decline, and it looked like kettle-cooked potato chips might be just a fad. During this time, we focused on consumer promotions and flavor introductions across our potato chip portfolio, developing more brand awareness for all varieties of Lay's, which also helped sustain the Kettle line. 

Then, several years ago, kettle-cooked potato chips became popular again, and at Frito-Lay, we upped our marketing efforts on Lay's Kettle Cooked, which is now the country's leading kettle-cooked brand (double-digit sales growth last year). This time, I think it’s safe to say that kettle-cooked potato chips are here to stay for a couple reasons: First, Lay’s Kettle Cooked satisfies a large group of loyal consumers who love the hard-bite texture of the snack.  Second, the brand now contains all-natural ingredients, a major consumer trend these days. I personally think you can't beat Lay's Kettle Cooked Jalapeno chips thanks to their intense taste “kick.”

This month, Lay's Kettle Cooked is expanding its line by introducing Lay's Kettle Cooked Crinkle Cut Original made with all-natural potatoes and seasonings –- another “win” in satisfying consumer preferences and securing the brand’s long-term success.  The brand is also updating its packaging and launching two new regional flavors: 

• Lay's Kettle Cooked Crinkle Cut Spice Rubbed BBQ, sold in the western U.S. 

• Lay's Kettle Cooked Harvest Ranch, sold in the northern and southern U.S.

You can now find large bags of Lay's Kettle Cooked Crinkle Cut Original and the new regional flavors at your local store.  Plus, the brand just launched a single-serve version of Lay's Kettle Cooked Sea Salt & Cracked Pepper that you can find in convenience stores.  If you aren't already a big fan of Lay's Kettle Cooked potato chips, I recommend trying them. I think you'll agree with me that they really are here to stay!

Check Out the New SunChips Compostable Bag Advertising

To celebrate the launch of its new 100 percent compostable packaging, our SunChips brand is spreading its message with a new advertising campaign called 'Change is Irresistible.' The national campaign kicked off two weeks ago during the 2010 Winter Olympics and features new TV, print and digital advertising designed to increase mass awareness of the SunChips new compostable packaging.  

You can find the new ads on TV, in magazines such as Rolling Stone, People and In Style, and on Web sites such as CNN.com, People.com, YouTube and others.

The SunChips bag with 100 percent compostable packaging is currently available in Sam’s stores across the U.S., and is expanding to additional retailers throughout March and April. By Earth Day 2010, all large bags of SunChips in stores across the country will feature the 100 percent compostable bag.

Check out the SunChips Web site to learn more about the great-tasting snack and its compostable bag!

Frito-Lay Making Big Strides to Reduce Landfill Waste

Recently, I caught up with Reggie Nayar (pictured below), Senior Industry Manager of Sustainability and Recycling, who leads Frito-Lay's efforts to reduce landfill waste in our more than 30 manufacturing plants in the United States.  Last March, I blogged about a nationwide landfill-reduction effort he launched at a few of our plants, and today I’d like to share his team’s progress.

The landfill-reduction program has proved to be a big success thanks to the efforts of many people across the company -- especially Reggie and the environmental coordinators at our plants.  Last year, Frito-Lay reduced waste-to-landfills at our plants by more than 30 percent, and 14 of our plants now send less than 1 percent of waste to landfills. This is a big win for the environment and for Frito-Lay.

To realize these accomplishments, Reggie supported the environmental coordinators at Frito-Lay facilities, providing them with the tools they needed to reduce waste -- steps for getting started, on-going support and best practices sharing.  For instance, Reggie developed a “roadmap for success” in which he assisted the sites with new equipment purchases, helped optimize material use and worked to remove obstacles so the plants could realize significant landfill-reduction goals.

Frito-Lay’s showed a real passion to reduce landfill waste.  "The people working at our plants and distribution centers regularly tell me they're proud to be doing the right thing for the environment and for their kids' future,” Reggie told me.  “They say that even their kids take pride in what Frito-Lay is doing to reduce landfill waste.”

In addition to the landfill-reduction initiatives, Frito-Lay continues its "upcycling" program, where we send used packaging film (chip bags) to TerraCycle, and the bags are converted into a variety of useful items -- placemats, aprons, trash cans, gym bags, pencil cases, lunch boxes and stereo speakers.

"My 8-year-old daughter, Alyssa, proudly wears her Terracycle backpack, made from Lay’s Dill Pickle bags, to school,” Reggie explained. “She also motivates us to do more recycling at home by using a small trash bin for waste and two big bins for recyclables.”

I'm glad to see that Reggie, our plants and Frito-Lay as a company have made solid progress to reduce landfill waste, and this year, we’re raising the stakes even more. Reggie’s goal is to achieve another 30 percent reduction in landfill waste at each of our plants.  Plus, he's rolling out landfill-reduction programs with many of Frito-Lay's suppliers -- cardboard, seasonings and packaging film companies. 

However, in my own home, I haven’t faired as well.  Last year, I mentioned we were working to recycle more -- and that is coming along great.  But I also mentioned that I was beginning to compost, and that hasn’t been as successful. All I really achieved through composting was attracting some very annoying little bugs to my yard. Clearly, I did something wrong.  Maybe with Reggie’s help, I can give composting another try this spring.

Friendly Banter Between Warren Buffett and Indra Nooyi: Buffett is a Frito-Lay Fan!

Yesterday on CNBC's Squawk Box, entrepreneur and Coca-Cola's largest shareholder Warren Buffett engaged in some friendly banter with our PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi. As part of CNBC's special series, "Ask Warren," correspondent Joe Kernen introduced Indra to Warren in part six of the eight-part interview series, during which time he also interviewed Indra about the completion of the PepsiCo bottler acquisition.

While bantering, Warren referenced Frito-Lay specifically and said, "Frito-Lay is a fabulous business. I'd love to own it. I eat Fritos, I eat Cheetos, I eat their potato chips . . . " 

View video footage from Joe's interview with Indra below, and click here to read the complete interview transcript.

 

Cheetos Launches Mighty Zingers

My wife, Janis, and I visited our lake house in East Texas last weekend, and while we were there, we went to the local Brookshire's grocery store to pick-up something for dinner.  I heard Cheetos was launching a new product soon, and I had to see if it was on the shelf yet.  I found it: Cheetos Mighty Zingers.  The vibrant metallic packaging made the bags easy to spot, and I love the name "Mighty Zingers" because it captures both the mischievous nature of Chester and evokes the idea of a flavorful snack food. 

I had to choose between the two flavors of Mighty Zingers -- Ragin' Cajun & Tangy Ranch and Sharp Cheddar & Salsa Picante. I picked Sharp Cheddar & Salsa Picante.  When I got home and tasted the Mighty Zingers, I was surprised to find there are actually two different flavors of tiny, bite-size Cheetos in each bag (quite the opposite of Giant Cheetos, which debuted last year). Best of all, I think Mighty Zingers tastes delicious.

Both flavor combinations of Cheetos Mighty Zingers are available in large bags in supermarkets, and you can find single-serve bags at convenience stores. 

Watch-out for a sample of Cheetos Mighty Zingers inside Frito-Lay's 22-count Flavor Mix multipack in March, and on May 9, there will be a coupon for Cheetos Mighty Zingers in your Sunday newspaper.  

Click here to find stores near you that carry Cheetos Mighty Zingers.