Frito-Lay began in the early 1930s as two separate companies, The Frito Company and H.W. Lay & Company, both of which merged in 1961 to form Frito-Lay, Inc. Four years later in 1965, Frito-Lay, Inc. merged with the Pepsi-Cola Company, resulting in the formation of PepsiCo. Since that time, Frito-Lay has operated as a wholly owned subsidiary of PepsiCo.