Snack Chat

2009: Frito-Lay Year in Review

2009 was an exciting year for me personally, as I retired from Frito-Lay, entered the blogosphere, and welcomed two new grandsons into the family. It’s also been a big year for Frito-Lay, and I've enjoyed tracking our news, events and product launches on Snack Chat.  I'm amazed at and proud of all we’ve accomplished, so I thought I'd wrap up the year with a look back at, in my opinion, some of Frito-Lay’s highlights. 

New Products and Promotions

"What's new?" is the question I’m asked most frequently and is the topic that gets the most comments from readers here.  Some of my favorite product news from 2009 . . .

• Doritos Late Night and Baked! Lay's Southwestern Ranch: These are two of Frito-Lay's most popular new flavors.  Each reflects how today's consumers are increasingly looking for products made just for them -– Doritos Late Night targets the Millennial generation, while Baked! Lay's appeals especially to adult women.
• Tostitos Restaurant Style Salsa: This was, by far, the “new” product that received the most praise from consumers this year.  We discontinued it a few years ago, but reintroduced it following a flood of letters and calls from our consumers.
• Promotions: This year, our promotions ranged from sharing inspiring stories collected in the True North Stories of the Month program to creating exciting in-store programs for Labor Day, Halloween and football season to engaging consumers in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest.  The Lay's Across America campaign, which featured the efforts of our more than 40,000 employees and the American farmers who grow the potatoes that become Lay’s potato chips, let consumers track where their Lay’s potato chips were made –- usually pretty close to home!

Environmental Sustainability

I am very proud of the strides Frito-Lay made as we continued to be a corporate leader in environmental sustainability. My favorites include:

• Progress at our Casa Grande, Ariz., Plant: I blogged about the great work our employees at our Casa Grande plant are doing to bring together many of Frito-Lay’s sustainability efforts, minimizing our footprint on the planet by reducing energy consumption, water usage and landfill waste.
• Fuel Conservation Initiatives: I also blogged about how Frito-Lay is working to improve the fuel efficiency of our sizable fleet by adopting new fuel-efficient Sprinter trucks, testing Smith electric vehicles and enhancing maintenance routines for our existing fleet. 
• Progress on the SunChips Compostable Bag: Possibly the biggest environmental breakthrough this year was the progress on our SunChips packaging. This year was just the first step in our goal to bring a fully compostable bag to market next year. Today, one-third of the large SunChips bag is compostable, and our goal is for it to be fully compostable by Earth Day 2010.

Employer of Choice 

Frito-Lay strives to attract the most talented people because we know they will lead us to continued success.  I blogged about some of the top programs designed to ensure that we attract, retain and support our employees. A quick recap . . .

• Diversity & Inclusion: Over the last decade, Frito-Lay elevated its diversity and inclusion efforts, ensuring they are a top priority. You can see our progress in action when you look at the various employee resource groups in place at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo.  This year, I blogged about a couple of the groups, including Adelante (our Hispanic/Latino network) and RISE (our Native American network).
• Servant Leadership: Like Frito-Lay President and Chairman Al Carey, I believe that the future for business lies in adopting servant leadership. In a servant leadership-minded culture, it’s the role of the manager to support his/her employees giving them the resources they need to do their jobs and removing obstacles that get in their way.
• Women Trailblazers: Probably some of my most candid blog posts this year featured women leaders at Frito-Lay and their views on the evolving role of women in business over the last decade, the importance of mentors and the challenges they face -– and have overcome -- balancing their professional and family lives. 

I've also had fun this year sharing tales from my vacations (including one to Italy, where this photo of me and my wife, Janis, at Mt. Vesuvius was taken), offering fun snack recipes for the holidays and providing personal insights as I transitioned into retirement after working at Frito-Lay for 30 years.  Plus, I've welcomed a few guest bloggers who offered fresh perspectives on topics important to us -- most notably Diane from “Fit to the Finish,” who shared her amazing weight-loss journey and healthy eating advice.

When I started writing on Snack Chat last January, my goal was to tell Frito-Lay’s story authenticly and informally, and give you a “peek under the tent” of the happenings at Frito-Lay.  I hope I've accomplished that, and I look forward to blogging with you more in 2010.

Happy New Year!

Frito-Lay Celebrates Native American Heritage Month

Last summer my wife, Janis, and I spent a day hiking through the Ancestral Pueblo cliff dwellings at Bandelier National Monument (pictured left) in northern New Mexico.  While it was fascinating to learn about the Pueblo history, I realized how little I know about today's Native Americans. 

So, to satisfy my curiosity, I recently called Grace Panther, who works in production at our Irving, Texas plant, and founded the RISE organization at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, an employee network that raises awareness about the contributions of Native American people and their culture.  She told me about the work RISE is doing at Frito-Lay/PepsiCo and in the community and to celebrate Native American Heritage Month this year.

Grace told me that RISE and its 500 members focus on issues that Native Americans are passionate about, such as family and community and their connection with the earth.  One of RISE’s core principles is to uplift Native American youth and educate them about business and career opportunities.  It recently hosted a career day for 40 Choctaw students and helped keep an after-school program for Native American students in Charlotte, N.C., from closing.

RISE is especially active at Frito-Lay, helping drive environmental sustainability progress and education, including leading recycling packaging efforts with TerraCycle (a relationship I've blogged about in the past).  The network also works closely with our sales team to support business with Native American organizations and businesses.

Grace (pictured right) told me about a variety of events RISE hosted in November to celebrate Native American Heritage month, including a summit at Frito-Lay Headquarters on Nov. 11.  “We celebrated our heritage and educated employees about RISE and what we do,” Grace told me. “Hopefully, the summit helped break down stereotypes and demonstrate the contributions Native Americans make in American society.”

One of the summit highlights was a presentation by Thomas Begay, a former Marine, about his experiences as a Navajo Code Talker during World War II.  The Code Talkers developed a secret code based on Native America terms that the U.S. military used to communicate with troops.  It’s the only unbreakable code in modern military history.

Nov. 11 was also a milestone for Grace, marking five years of hard work building the RISE network.  "Five years ago I was working at our Cucamonga plant in California and attended an employee event. I walked through the event booths and came upon the Diversity and Inclusion table, which provided information about all of the Frito-Lay employee networks.  The employees hosting the table asked me if I wanted to join Adelante, Frito-Lay's Hispanic/Latino network, or the Women of Color network.  I told them I'm Native American and wanted something specifically for me.  Nothing existed.  A couple of weeks later, I agreed to start a Native American network at PepsiCo -- although I had no idea the amount of work I was getting myself into!"

Grace, a 22-year veteran of Frito-Lay, credits Dave Haft, a Vice President in Operations, for providing the initial executive sponsorship to help make RISE a success.  As I finished my conversation with Grace, I asked what “RISE” stands for.  She laughed and said that it’s not an acronym; it is the actual verb – “to rise.”  When she was a young girl attending a small Native American church in Oklahoma, at the end of the service, the pastor would say "Asaladana," which is Cherokee for "get up and rise."  So, Grace thought “RISE” was an appropriate and inspirational name for the Frito-Lay/PepsiCo Native American network.  After speaking with her, I have to agree.  

Our Visit with 10 Talented and Interesting Bloggers

Last week, Frito-Lay hosted 10 popular female bloggers at our headquarters office in Plano, Texas, to share an up-close look at our commitment to healthy snacking, environmental sustainability and being a partner and employer of choice, and hear from them about how we can continue to provide the kinds of snacks and programs they and their families and friends are looking for. 

The women each blog about their passion in life – from motherhood to cost-cutting to fashion to cooking to health and wellness.  They are:

• Katja Presnal: Skimbaco Lifestyle

• Andrea Deckard: Mommy Snacks

• Lori Falcon: A Cowboy’s Wife and My Wooden Spoon

• Erika Lehmann: Chic Shopper Chick

• Julie Maloney: Momspective

• Lea Ann Stundis: Mommy’s Wishlist

• Toni Anderson: The Happy Housewife

• Diane Carbonell: Fit to the Finish

• Tanya Gordon: Mommy Goggles

• Amanda Acuna: Mommy Mandy

Highlights of the two-day event included: 

• A visit to our new culinary innovation center, where Frito-Lay’s Executive Research Chef, Stephen Kalil, told them about how we’re blending “Culinology” and nutrition to reshape product and flavor development – and gave them the chance to taste a variety of upcoming snacks. (Pictured below: The bloggers with Chefs Marc Valiani and Stephen Kalil in the Culinary Innovation Center.)

• Two of our marketers, Samantha Morton and Marissa Jarratt, shared updates on our environmental sustainability programs and women-focused marketing and innovation efforts. We were thrilled to receive positive feedback from the bloggers about our partnerships with TerraCycle and Ecoist to reduce packaging waste.

 • A stop at our SMART Learning Center, a large research facility set up to mimic a supermarket.  After a presentation from our Director of Insights Michelle Adams about the differences in appealing to women through circulars and in-store displays and how we’re working to help improve women’s shopping experience, the group toured the facility.  It was great to hear from them about how they think some of the initiatives we’re working on will solve some of the challenges they face. (Pictured below: The bloggers with Michelle Adams at the Smart Learning Center.)

• A tour of one of our plants, where  the women got a behind-the-scenes peek at how we make some of our products – Rold Gold Honey Wheat Pretzel Twists, Baked! Doritos and Chester’s Hot Fries.  

We’re proud of our “Good Fun” story and the progress we’re making with healthier snacking, sustainability and better serving our consumers, customers and employees.  Our visit with these incredible and inspiring group of women bloggers was a wonderful chance to share our news, and to hear from them about how we can take these efforts even further.  We look forward to continuing to partner with and learn from them!

Wal-Mart & Frito-Lay's Commitment to Sustainability

Earlier this year, I was filled with youthful enthusiasm (well, at least enthusiasm) and blogged about all the things I was going to do to live greener.  While I made progress with recycling, my first attempts at composting did not work so well.  Rather than persevering, I stopped.  So now, when I go into the backyard, the composter sits there, staring at me -- a monument to my failure.  Obviously, I need some inspiration to get back into the green spirit!

Thankfully, Frito-Lay and Wal-Mart have both made significant progress in their sustainability initiatives.  From using solar power to produce SunChips at our plant in Modesto, Calif., to reducing our water usage across the board by 40 percent over the last 10 years, to adding fuel-efficient sprinter trucks to our fleet system, Frito-Lay continues to make progress on our mission to conserve and preserve the environment.

Wal-Mart is bringing impressive sustainability progress to the table too, by developing and implementing with their partners a Sustainability Index, an initiative to help create a more transparent supply chain, drive product innovation and ultimately provide their customers with information they need to assess products’ sustainability. 

In July, Rand Waddoups, Wal-Mart’s Senior Director of Sustainability, blogged on Check Out about the company’s strategy to kick-off the Index this year: Wal-Mart started by asking its partner companies, including Frito-Lay, to answer 15 questions about each organization’s carbon footprint and environmental impact.  (You can read more about the complete Sustainability Index process on the Wal-Mart Web site, and I’ll be back with updates here on Snack Chat as they accomplish additional steps.)   

"The Sustainability Index is really a lifecycle analysis, more than a traditional survey, because it assesses an organization’s complete carbon footprint -- from raw materials to finished product packaging waste,” Jack Pettijohn (pictured left), Frito-Lay's Senior Manager of Sustainability told me, who helped Frito-Lay complete the questionnaire earlier this month. “Frito-Lay is already in the forefront of environmental sustainability, and we welcome partnering with Wal-Mart to help accelerate this commitment. Since Wal-Mart maintains the unique position of being able to influence the entire industry, we think our sustainability partnership with it can help accelerate both companies’ efforts." 

According to Rand, the Sustainability Index is just the first step in Wal-Mart’s journey toward the company’s long-term goals: To have zero waste; to use 100 percent renewable energy; and to bring more sustainable products to their customers.

Wal-Mart's goal, Frito-Lay’s sustainability progress and our partnership with Wal-Mart are admirable and ambitious.  Personally, I know I need to continue making small steps to go greener, and not give up so easily when things don’t go as planned.  So, in the spring, I'll dust off the composter and give it another try.

Frito-Lay HQ Building Awarded LEED Gold Status

Yesterday, Frito-Lay was recognized for our commitment to environmental sustainability as our Plano, Texas, headquarters building was awarded LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. 

Our chief blogger, Dave Philips, blogged earlier this year about our work and progress to retrofit the headquarters building to meet LEED Gold standards, and we're proud that we've achieved the status now, especially since our headquarters building is the only existing building in the state of Texas -- and one of 12 corporate headquarters offices nationally -- to receive this certification. 

George Guck, Director of Facilities and Corporate Services, spearheaded the efforts to upgrade the building to meet LEED Gold standards.  The work that he and his team accomplished can be categorized into four key focus areas: Energy reduction, water reduction, recycling and employee education.

Check-out more about the LEED Gold certification and awards event. 

Pictured above: USGBC North Texas Chair Ken Sidebottom, Frito-Lay Chief People Officer Michele Thatcher and George Guck.