The Pepsi Company
PepsiCo, Incorporated is one of the largest Fortune 500 companies in the world. It got its start as the Pepsi Cola Company in 1898 when a pharmacist from Chinquapin, North Carolina. A pharmacist named Caleb Bradham invented the Pepsi Cola soft drink. The soft drink was originally named “Brad’s Drink” but was later renamed “Pepsi-Cola” combining the terms “pepsin” and “cola.” Along with selling the soda concoction the many soda fountains, Bradham also bottled and sold the drink in his own stores. Later, he would shut down his drugstore and focus entirely on the soft drink enterprise. Over the next few years the company would grow, earning more and more distributors in its expansion. By 1910 the company had signed agreements with 250 bottlers and the annual production of the beverage had exceeded one million galloons. Unfortunately, the sugar rationing during World War I caused the company suffer a great deal and it ended up declaring bankruptcy several times. Eventually, after numerous owners and operators, the company fell under new leadership as Walter S. Mack, Jr. took control and guided the company through the forties decade. Mack set up a board of directors, hired an advertising agency, and led the company through yet another sugar rationing during World War II. He was appointed a company chairman in 1950. It was at that point that Alfred N. Steele, a former Coca-Cola vice president of sales, took over as president and chief executive officer of Pepsi Cola Inc. Steele ran the company for nearly a decade before dying of a heart attack in 1959. His wife, Joan Crawford, and leading spokes person for the company’s advertising campaign was appointed a board member. By 1963, the head of Pepsi-Cola International had risen to the top of the Pepsi empire. Finally, the company combined with Frito Lay in 1965 founding PepsiCo, Incorporated and making Donald M. Kendall President and Chief Executive Officer and Herman W. Lay, the founder of Frito Lay, chairman of the Board
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