No sacrifice on taste

Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery, May, 2004

"When Frito-Lay added a little curl to its snacks, the company's sales improved. The clever twist allowed consumers to scoop up their guacamole or salsa dip and place relatively more of it in their mouths and less on their rugs. Of such seemingly modest innovations are great fortunes made." This was how the Economist magazine opened a major supplement on the subject of innovation in April of this year.

As the quote implies, a lot of innovation's going on in the world of potato chips, and as usual, Piano, Texas-based Frito-Lay has the biggest hand in the $6 billion category's successful hitting and pitching. Thus, in the February 2004 PepsiCo. investors' conference call, PepsiCo. CEO Steven Reinemund noted: "Our growth prospects from innovations provide even greater...