Wise Foods history

He had his first delivery truck by 1922.

A relative latecomer to chips, Herman Lay, would start out as a distributor for the Atlanta-based Barrett Potato Chip Co. before buying Barrett's Atlanta and Nashville factories and introducing Lay's Brand Potato Chips in 1938.

The snack industry and the fortunes of the Wise Potato Chip Company improved dramatically after World War II. Per capita consumption of potato chips in the United States increased from 1.91 pounds in 1945 to 2.56 pounds a decade later.

In 1964 the company passed out of the Wise family, when it was acquired by the Borden Condensed Milk Co.

In 1968 Borden Condensed Milk, now highly diversified, shortened its name to Borden, Inc.

In 1989 Wise acquired Moore's Quality Snack Foods, which also produced salty snacks marketing mostly in Virginia and the Carolinas.

Finally in 1993 Borden hired a CEO with a background in packaged foods, but the company was in such poor condition that when he put it up for sale later in the year Borden received no bids.

The agreement expired at the end of January 1995, and as a result Wise stayed in the Borden family, albeit on the periphery.

Formed in 1997, Palladium had invested more than $700 million in a number of industries, including radio, television, and automotive components.

In 1999 Wise generated sales of about $336 million, and operated four plants, located in Berwick and Denver, Pennsylvania; Spartanburg, South Carolina; and Bristol, Virginia.

In October 2000, the company was bought by the private New York investment firm of Palladium Equity Partners L.L.C. for $96 million.

Wise made some changes in the 2000s to improve its competitiveness. It closed the Quinlan Pretzel Co. plant in Denver, Pennsylvania, in 2002 and contracted with another area company to make pretzels under the Quinlan name.

In 2004, Palladium began efforts to help Wise cut into Frito-Lay's share in Wise's key markets, including new packaging for all of its products.

In the summer of 2005 Wise financed a three-year sponsorship deal to become the Official Potato Chip of the New York Mets.

Wise Foods Founder Earl V. Wise, Circle of Honor 2011 Inductee

In 2012, Wise Foods was acquired by the Mexican company Arca Continental, the second largest Coca-Cola bottler in Latin America and number three in the world.