Bare Snacks was founded in 2001 by Eric Strandberg, who is from a family of organic farmers, in upstate Washington, evolving from an apple chips producer to the current leader in the US dried fruit and vegetable snacks category in that time.
A month before the announcement of the acquisition, CEO Santosh Padki told BakeryandSnacks Bare Snacks had attracted a lot of interest from large CPG companies, and with PepsiCo’s involvement, it plans to expand its lines to include more fruit and vegetable options.
“We are thrilled to work with PepsiCo team to further our mission of bringing simplicity to snacking,” said Padki. “With a shared passion for crunchy, better-for-you snacks, PepsiCo is the right partner to help bring our simply baked fruit and vegetable snacks to even more consumers across the world and continue to grow our brand.”
The brand positioning of Bare Snacks is also in line with the PepsiCo’s “Performance with Purpose,” the US food giant’s vision of making more nutritious products by reducing added sugars, salt and saturated fat, according to Indra Nooyi, chairman and CEO of PepsiCo.
“Bare Snacks perfectly fits that vision… [its] leadership team has done an outstanding job building a top-tier organization and a strong brand with authentic roots,” she said.
Operate under Frito-Lay North America
Upon closing the deal, Bare Snacks will report directly to Frito-Lay North America, the snacks division of PepsiCo, while operating independently from its headquarters in San Francisco.
“Bare premium baked fruit and vegetable chips are an exciting expansion of Frito-Lay’s better-for-you snack offerings,” said Vivek Sankaran, president and chief operating officer at Frito-Lay North America.
“While we will continue to offer the current Bare Snacks product line, we look forward to working with Bare Snacks team to deliver new, innovative options, and ultimately expanded distribution, to meet the ever-growing consumer demands for authentic and nutritious snacks,” he said.
This is not the first time Frito-Lay has explored the healthy snacking space in the US: it launched a line of organic snacks, called Simply, made without artificial ingredients about a year ago.
Frito-Lay North America remains PepsiCo’s core business, posting a 3% revenue increase of $3.62bn in Q1 2018.