PEPSICO, INC.

American corporation that makes soft drinks and snack foods. The company of the current name was formed in 1965, in the merger of Pepsi-Cola Company and Frito-Lay, Inc. The company's headquarters are in Purchase, N.Y. The first Pepsi-Cola was created by Caleb D. Bradham (1866-1934), a pharmacist in New Bern, N.C. Hoping to duplicate the recent success of Coca-Cola, Bradham named his sweet, cola-flavoured, carbonated beverage Pepsi-Cola in 1898. The drink proved popular, so in 1902 Bradham incorporated the Pepsi-Cola Company. After many years of moderate prosperity, the company fell on hard times after World War I and was reorganized and reincorporated several times in the 1920s. In 1931 the company's trademark and assets were picked up by Charles G. Guth (1876-1948), the real founder of modern Pepsi-Cola. He established a new Pepsi-Cola Company, had a chemist formulate a better drink, set up new bottling operations, and began merchandising a hugely successful 12-ounce bottle for five cents. Guth was also president of Loft, Incorporated, a candy manufacturer and soda-fountain chain (founded in 1919), and in legal battles in 1936-39 he lost control of the Pepsi-Cola Company to the new management of Loft, which won ownership of Pepsi-Cola. When in 1941 the Pepsi-Cola Company was merged into Loft, the name Loft, Incorporated, was changed to Pepsi-Cola Company. In 1950 Alfred N. Steele (1901-59), a former vice president of Coca-Cola Company, became chief executive officer. His emphasis on giant advertising campaigns and sales promotions increased Pepsi-Cola's net earnings 11-fold during the 1950s and made it the chief competitor of Coca-Cola. (After Steele's death in 1959, his wife, the actress Joan Crawford, became an active director of the company.) In 1965 Pepsi-Cola merged with Frito-Lay, Inc., the maker of such snack foods as Fritos, Doritos, Lay's potato chips, and Rold Gold pretzels. The newly enlarged company went on diversifying with the purchase of Pizza Hut, Inc. (1977), Taco Bell Inc. (1978), Seven-Up International (1986), and Kentucky Fried Chicken Corp. (1986; now called KFC). But in order to concentrate on its profitable soft-drink and snack-food businesses, PepsiCo in 1997 spun off its Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and KFC restaurants into a new, separate company called Tricon Global Restaurants, Inc.