I’ve often heard our CEO, Al Carey, say that Frito-Lay employees perform best in the face of adversity, and this winter’s powerful snow storms showed just how true that is.
It’s hard to think of a business that wasn’t impacted by this winter’s unprecedented snowfall. But for Frito-Lay, the unique nature of our business makes weather-related challenges especially complicated. Forecasts of snowstorms send consumers concerned about becoming snowbound to their local grocery stores in droves to stock up on food, which of course, increases demand for our snacks. And because we’re a direct-store delivery business – meaning our sales associates deliver our snacks directly to retailers’ shelves -- impending storms require our sales team to make extra store visits to ensure the snack aisles are fully stocked. Once the storms hit, our associates’ commitment to customer service means they do everything they can to keep their store visits on schedule, even if it means confronting snow-filled roads, unplowed store parking lots and power outages.
On top of all this, the worst of this year’s weather hit at the busiest time of year for Frito-Lay – right before the Super Bowl, when many Americans are stocking up on snacks for game day parties.
We all knew it would take above-and-beyond efforts to keep our business on track during the storms, but the lengths that some Frito-Lay associates went to were truly Herculean:
- Route sales rep Ginger Monroe (pictured right), based in Okmulgee, Okla., found her delivery
truck buried in snow. She managed to dig it out from 4-foot snow drifts, only to discover that the diesel fuel had jelled in the sub-zero temperatures, leaving the truck inoperable. Undeterred, Ginger rented a U-Haul trailer, hooked it to her husband’s four-by-four vehicle and transferred the snacks she needed to deliver from her truck to the trailer. She and her husband then drove to the stores on her route, where she stocked the shelves with Frito-Lay snacks as if it was just another day on the job.
- In the face of a blizzard with 25-mile-per-hour winds, Tharyn Hill (pictured below), a route sales rep in Muskogee, Okla., made his way to the stores on his route by driving his John Deere tractor.
- Stan Fahey, with our Bronx team in New York, showed up at work at 3 a.m, following one of the snowstorms, to clear snow and ice from the delivery trucks at his site to help ensure his fellow sales associates could drive safely and keep their business on track.
- David Lamb, a route sales rep based in Marshall, Mo, knew that an overnight storm would leave him homebound. Yet he is so committed to his customers that he parked his delivery truck in the parking lot of one of the stores he services, walked to a nearby hotel to spend the night, and then walked through a foot of snow and 2 inches of ice the next morning to return to his truck and stock the store with Frito-Lay snacks.
There are dozens more stories like this from across Frito-Lay. Company leaders have honored all these employees, and we’re also recognizing them in our employee e-newsletter and on a special display at our headquarters building. My guess, though, is that these employees would tell you they were just doing their jobs.
- Katherine
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