PepsiCo brings Fritos into jerky with Jack Link’s offerings

Dive Brief:

• PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay is expanding its partnership with Jack Link’s with the introduction of Fritos Chili Cheese flavored Beef Jerky, Meat Sticks and Cheese Stick and Meat Combos, the companies said in a statement.
• PepsiCo and the meat snacks company also are debuting Jack Link’s Flamin’ Hot flavored Cheese Stick & Meat Combos.
• The new products come a year after the two firms teamed up to introduce their first new products together: Jack Link’s Doritos Spicy Sweet Chili and Flamin’ Hot flavored Original beef jerky and meat sticks. 

Dive Insight:

With a dominant position in snacking, PepsiCo has been tapping into that equity to bring its popular snacking brands into new parts of the grocery store. 

“The question in our mind is how far do these brands stretch,” Parth Raval, chief growth officer for PepsiCo Foods North America, told Food Dive last year. “We have strong reason to believe that our brands play in multiple domains and we want to ensure that every time there’s a snacking occasion that the shopper is looking to Frito-Lay.”

Doritos entered the dip category in 2022 with Spicy Nacho and Cool Ranch Jalapeno, while PepsiCo launched Cheetos Popcorn nationally in early 2020. Jerky is another step in that effort to broaden the reach of its brands.

While PepsiCo previously played in jerky as part of its joint venture with plant-based food company Beyond Meat, animal-based offerings enable the snacks company to target a different consumer user.

Having a presence in jerky for Doritos, and now Fritos, allows PepsiCo to further participate in a meat snack category that has thrived as its portability and high-protein content attract more snacking consumers. An estimated 129 million Americans consumed meat snacks and beef jerky in 2020, according to Statista data. This figure is projected to increase to 133 million this year.

The partnership between PepsiCo and Jack Link’s also taps into the valuable equity of the two companies and their brands to create a product that stands out on store shelves. Fritos is one of the most popular chips in snacking, while Jack Link’s claims to be the No. 1 meat snack brand in the U.S.

“These product mashups are an exciting way for us to continue to bring our legendary flavors to new innovations and provide our fans with more exciting snacking options,” Leslie Vesper, vice president of marketing at Frito-Lay, said in a statement.

PepsiCo and Jack Link’s are no strangers to working together. The companies first struck a distribution deal in 2009.