See Yourself Inside: A bag of Lay’s

For nearly a century, Lay’s has brought together real potatoes and real experiences. Every chip begins with real potatoes, cultivated with care by farmers who understand the land and the harvest. That connection to agriculture is at the heart of Lay’s story: quality, authenticity, joy, and the people who make it possible.

Quick history lesson on Lay’s: the brand was created in 1938 by a traveling salesman named Herman W. Lay. He crisscrossed the United States selling Lay’s out of the trunk of his car and, in the 1940s, ran the first national television ads for a potato chip.

Today, Lay’s is sold in nearly 200 countries around the globe. The brand that started in the back of a car is one of the most loved chip brands in the world — but it still takes Herman W. Lay levels of ingenuity from a whole lot of people to make, move and sell each bag. Here are just a few of them.

From farm to bag

Procuring the potatoes

The journey starts with the people who secure the ingredient that defines Lay’s: potatoes.

“Everything’s direct grower,” says Fabrizzio Cantagallo, Director of Procurement for PepsiCo Foods North America. “We know where each potato comes from. We know the farm, we know the field.”

That connection matters at scale. Each year, teams work across more than 65 growers and suppliers, covering over 150 farm locations across the United States and Canada—many of them multi-generational farms that have partnered with PepsiCo for decades.

To make all of that work, Cantagallo’s team is constantly managing a moving system. They balance growing seasons, regional supply, demand signals, and quality requirements—decisions that determine how roughly 4 billion pounds of potatoes move through the network every year.

And it’s not just about knowing potatoes. For people in this part of the business, the work is part agriculture, part supply chain, and part commercial strategy. “Curiosity is key,” he adds.

Because there are variables the team can control—and many they can’t. Weather, demand signals, and supply chain conditions are always shifting, and the work is about adjusting in real time.

“Most of what we do every week is figure out what the best supply looks like for our production sites,” he explains. “Every week is a new puzzle.”

And through all of it, one thing stays constant: quality. The goal is to deliver potatoes that meet precise standards: size, color, consistency, so they perform the same way in production no matter where they’re grown.

“When you think about it, we’re not sourcing one potato—we’re sourcing 12 billion of them,” Cantagallo says. “So the question is always: how do we keep the quality consistent at that scale?”

Moving the potatoes

Once potatoes are sourced, the next challenge is getting them where they need to be—quickly and in the right condition. Teams coordinate transportation based on growing seasons, routes, and production needs. The goal is to keep everything moving efficiently between farms and production sites so quality stays consistent along the way.

“You need the supply chain to move fast and smoothly from farms to production sites,” Cantagallo explains.

Most potatoes move by truck, with teams prioritizing routes that keep supply close to production whenever possible. In some cases, potatoes are sourced locally during harvest season. In others, they are transported from different regions or pulled from storage depending on the time of year.

Making the chips

When potatoes arrive at our production sites, operations teams take over—keeping lines moving, managing materials, and maintaining quality. Stephen Chahanovich, Production Planner at the Killingly, Connecticut site, helps ensure a steady flow of potatoes to keep production running. His site processes 18 truckloads a day, sometimes rising to 24 during peak demand. From truck to bag, the process takes about 20 minutes. Potatoes are peeled, sliced, fried, and then tumbled in a rotating barrel to evenly coat each chip.

“We can make 14,000 pounds of chips every hour,” Chahanovich says.

Quality checks are built into the process. Each shift, team members compare chips against a “golden bag” to ensure consistency.

Some of the biggest operational improvements come from the floor. When smaller snack bags caused shutdowns due to chip size, the solution wasn’t in the plant—it was upstream. The solution was smaller potatoes, and Chahanovich met personally with growers to address it. “And they started planting the potatoes closer together, so they grow smaller,” he says.

Creating all those flavors

Once the chip is right, flavor teams build on that base—combining deep technical expertise with consumer understanding. “Lay’s are probably the perfect base for flavor development because it’s a beautiful palette,” says Ann Robarge, Senior Principal Scientist, who has spent her career in R&D product development.

Over the past several years, Lay’s has continued to evolve how flavors are created—placing quality ingredients and food culture at the center of the process. Today, teams draw inspiration from cuisines and traditions around the world, then test and refine ideas until they’re ready for consumers.

And consumer feedback is the final filter. Once the team narrows ideas down to a few versions, they ask consumers to try them: “Consumers have one job, and it’s to tell us if they like it or if they don’t. And it’s my job to be able to understand why they liked it or didn’t,” Robarge says.

By the time a Lay’s chip makes it into a bag, the work spans farms, logistics, production, and product development—each step carefully managed to ensure quality and consistency.

But that’s only part of the story.

Shaping the brand

For the people working on Lay’s, the brand isn’t something static—it’s something they’re constantly refining through a series of decisions about how it should look, feel, and show up across the world.

That work starts with the chip itself. Designers and marketers look closely at what defines Lay’s—real potatoes and quality ingredients—and translate that into how the brand is expressed visually and experientially. Every detail, from packaging to in-store presence, is shaped to reflect that connection back to the ingredients.

The refreshed Lay’s logo shines brighter, inspired by the sun that nurtures the potatoes, and is wrapped in the signature red ribbon — a mark of quality and care. Surrounding it are Lay’s rays, a dynamic design element that brings warmth and energy across packaging, retail, and beyond.

But bringing that to life is not a linear process. It requires close collaboration across design, marketing, insights, and communications teams. Ideas are tested, challenged, and refined continuously—often across multiple markets at once. Designers explore how visual elements connect back to the chip. Insights teams evaluate how consumers respond. Marketing teams translate those inputs into packaging and campaigns that ultimately reach the shelf.

Throughout that process, teams are constantly making judgment calls—deciding what to update, what to simplify, and what must stay exactly the same.

That balance becomes even more important at a global scale. Lay’s needs to feel familiar whether it appears in the U.S., China, or another market entirely. As Denise Truelove, Senior Vice President of Marketing, explains, those decisions are shaped by what consumers already expect from the brand:

At the same time, every change has implications beyond design and marketing. Even small updates to packaging or identity must be evaluated across regions, languages, and legal frameworks.

That’s where trademark teams play a critical role. Jeanette Zimmer, Legal Senior Director, works with a global network to protect Lay’s brand assets and ensure they remain consistent across nearly 200 countries. Her work involves monitoring potential conflicts, advising on how far changes can go, and making sure the brand remains recognizable wherever it appears.

“Our global trademark team safeguards these brand assets—our ‘crown jewels,’” Zimmer says.

For the teams behind the brand, the work is ongoing. It’s not about launching something new—it’s about continuously evolving something people already know, while ensuring it stays recognizable, relevant, and consistent across every market.

Where Lay’s lives

As consumer habits evolve, teams are increasingly focused on how Lay’s shows up in everyday moments, from events to on‑the‑go environments and new formats built around food experiences. That shift has opened up new ways for people to interact with the brand, not just as a snack, but as part of shared moments.

One example is the Lay’s potato‑themed restaurant in Shanghai, where the brand is brought to life through a full culinary experience. The concept blends product, design, and culture—transforming familiar ingredients into dishes, environments, and moments designed to be experienced and shared.

This kind of work reflects a broader shift in how the brand connects with consumers. As Nina Mu, Chief Marketing Officer, Greater China Foods, explains:

Bringing ideas like this to life requires teams to think differently about how the food fits into people’s lives—working across marketing, innovation, and partnerships to translate emerging consumer behaviors into experiences that feel relevant in specific markets.

That same mindset shapes how Lay’s shows up globally. Flavor plays an important role in how people connect with the brand, with variations across regions reflecting local tastes, traditions, and preferences. Whether rooted in familiar favorites or inspired by regional cuisine, those differences are intentionally developed to align with how people actually eat and share food.

Across all of these moments—whether through a new format, a local flavor, or a shared occasion—the goal is consistent: to meet people where they are and make Lay’s feel like part of those experiences.

A Bag of Lay’s, Made by Thousands

For Fabrizzio Cantagallo, what stands out most about Lay’s isn’t just the potato itself—it’s the people behind it.

That passion shows up at every stage. It lives in the growers and suppliers who help bring our products to life on farms around the world. It lives in the procurement teams, solving a new supply puzzle every week. It shows up in the operators and engineers keeping production moving, in the scientists refining flavors, and in the marketers, lawyers, and commercial teams helping bring Lay’s to people around the world.

Every chip is the result of thousands of decisions made by thousands of people – all helping turn a potato into one of the world’s most recognizable brands.