Herman Lay

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Herman W. Lay (1909-1982) was a Nashville, Tennessee, USA businessman who started H.W. Lay Co., Inc., now part of the Frito-Lay corporation.

Lay began his career as a 24-year-old delivery driver. As a travelling salesman for the Barrett Food Company, he delivered potato chips to his customers in his Ford Model A. Lay's territory eventually expanded and his profits began to grow. In 1934, he founded the H.W. Lay Distributing Company based in Atlanta, Georgia, a distributor for the Barrett Food Products Company, and began to hire employees. By 1937, Lay had 25 employees, and had begun producing his own line of snack foods.

The H.W. Lay & Company merged with The Frito Company in September of 1961, creating the largest-selling snack food company in the United States, the Frito-Lay corporation.