Frito Lay named Business of the Month

The Business Development Committee of the Perry Area Chamber of Commerce recognizes Frito Lay as its Business of the Month for October 2013. This award makes them eligible for the Business of the Year Award. During the ceremony, held Oct. 2 at the Frito Lay Perry plant, Chamber Chair Beth McLaughlin presented the Frito Lay representatives with the Perry Area Chamber’s award. Accepting the award on behalf of Frito Lay were Clark Ziegler, Bonny Bourque, Joe Rossi, Kelsey Hartman and other members of the Frito Lay management team.

In attendance were members of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, State Sen. Ross Tolleson, Mayor Jimmy Faircloth, Councilman William Jackson, Houston County Development Authority Executive Director Angie Gheesling, Perry area business leaders, as well as Perry Chamber President and CEO Stacy Campbell. During the presentation the committee also presented Frito Lay with a special award commemorating the Perry plant’s 25 years in business anniversary.

Frito Lay is one of the top five employers in Houston County with more 1,300 workers. The largest Frito Lay plant located under one roof is in Perry at nearly one million square feet and 12 production lines. The site produces 250 million pounds of product and ships 64 million cases each year to services 18 states. In 2010 the PepsiCo Frito Lay Perry plant became the state’s first manufacturing site to be awarded LEED® for Existing Buildings (EB) Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), as verified by the Green Building Certification Institute (GBCI). LEED is the nation’s preeminent program for the design, construction and operation of high performance green buildings. They were also awarded Georgia’s Manufacturer of the Year in 2010 and were featured on National Geographic’s Ultimate Factories.

Quick Frito Lay facts:

• Less than one percent of the Perry factory’s solid waste goes in landfill sites.

• Frito Lay exports its products to 79 countries.

• The Perry facility is efficient – potatoes arrive at the facility and are bagged as chips within six to eight hours.

• The Perry facility cooks around one million pounds of potatoes every day.

• The potatoes used for Frito Lay’s potato chips are harvested from over 80 farms scattered across the USA.

• An average of 175,000 boxes of chips leave the Perry facility every day.

HHJ News