'Performance with purpose' Frito Lay mantra

BY BRENT FOX

The Advertiser

NovaNewsNow.com

Things are chipper at Frito Lay Canada, the country’s fastest growing snack food company. Even plain old chips are healthier and a facility in New Minas is part of that development.

Frito Lay Canada president Marc Guay spoke to Acadia University business students Tuesday, March 18 as part of the Distinguished Business Speakers series.

The company, a division of PepsiCo, operates the Frito Lay plant at New Minas, employing about 125 people and using Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island potatoes in the facility’s various snack food products.

PepsiCo owns a wide variety of food-product companies, with a total of 185,000 employees and revenues of $40 billion. As well, the mission values of PepsiCo are to nourish the world, replenish resources and cherish employees.

The parent company makes, of course, the familiar carbonated beverages such as Pepsi brands, but also Gatorade and Tropicana juices as well as breakfast foods, including Quaker Oats, and various salted snacks.

The company produces global brands, recognized around the world, as well as some more local ones.

Miss Vickie’s chips, for example, is a Canadian Frito Lay brand that is becoming known more and more outside the country.

New Minas plant has future

As for Frito Lay Canada, Guay told The Advertiser following his presentation, “our New Minas plant is a great plant, in about its 50th year. We hope it’s going to be here for a long time. It makes great products.” He had visited the facility that day.

In his presentation, Guay told the students the company’s mantra is “performance with purpose.”

The company’s view is to the long-term, not short-term profits. It has sales of $1 billion a year; 90 per cent of its products are made in Canada, with $200 million in materials bought from Canadian farms.

The company has six plants across the country, including the New Minas facility.

“It’s a very local business model,” Guay pointed out. This is necessary because products don’t have a very long shelf life, so they have to be at the store in a very short time to meet the commitment to freshness.

Frito Lay employees stocking those sections are especially careful about handling the product to ensure consumers don’t end up with a bunch of crumbs at the bottom of the bag.

Sees four trends

The company is cognizant of four trends that affect business. These include a rapidly changing demographic landscape in the country, including an aging population more interested in eating healthy foods, a growing immigrant community with different tastes, and dual income families that need more convenience in food.

Second, customers are increasingly solidifying to five major retailers across the country.

Third, about 20 per cent of corn is now grown for ethanol, creating a price hike in corn costs. This also affects wheat and barley farms, which are switching over to corn to get in on the new market.

This is driving the cost of doing business through the roof, Guay noted. And even if corn production were 100 per cent committed to ethanol, it would mean only a total of five per cent of motor fuel.

A fourth trend is the shrinking talent pool from which to attract employees.

Guay noted that Frito Lay is always looking for good people to employ. This includes Acadia grads, many of which have begun successful careers with the company.

Meanwhile, Frito Lay products are getting healthier, Guay pointed out, being transfat-free. The company uses high quality sunflower oil. As well, the product line includes lower sodium and multi-grain items as well as new 100-calorie packs.

The company is environmentally aware, Guay noted, with its trucks being more fuel-efficient and emitting less greenhouse gas. Improved production methods use less water and electricity.