On July 23, PepsiCo, Inc. announced that it completed its plan to acquire Tasali Snack Foods, the leader of the Saudi Arabian salty snack market, from Savola Snack Foods.
The assets of Tasali will be combined with those of Saudi Snack Foods, a PepsiCo joint venture and the second-largest salty snack company in Saudi Arabia.
The newly combined entity will continue under the Saudi Snack Foods name as the country's number one salty snack company with over 45 per cent share of the more than $100 million Saudi market.
"The Tasali acquisition brings further scale to our growing leadership position across the Middle East," said Michael D. White, President and Chief Executive Officer for PepsiCo's Frito-Lay businesses in Europe, Africa and the Middle East.
"With our strong global brands and superior selling and manufacturing capabilities, we are now the leader in six countries throughout the region with sufficient scale to operate efficiently and expand the industry."
Saudi Arabia joins Egypt, Turkey, Jordan, Bahrain and Qatar, where PepsiCo's Frito-Lay division holds leadership positions in the Middle East.
Internationally, Frito-Lay is now the number one snack company in over 30 countries, including nine of the 15 largest snack chip markets.
As the largest snack chip company in the world, Frito-Lay generates nearly $4 billion in annual sales outside North America and another $8.5 billion in the U.S. and Canada.
The expanded Saudi Snack Food operation will manufacture and distribute throughout the country and to the Gulf states a range of salty snack brands, including Frito-Lay potato chips, Cheetos cheese puffs, Tasali potato chips, and Quavers.