Pepsi Acquires Siete Foods: A $1.2 Billion Acquisition with Mixed Reactions

Exploring the potential challenges & opportunities of this monumental sale and how it may impact the products we love...

Siete Foods has sold to Pepsi for 1.2 billion dollars. I’ve gotten so many messages today from people asking my thoughts on this since I have been a long time lover of Siete Foods. I truly love this company and have loved them since I first tried their products many years ago.

Siete Foods is a Mexican American food company that makes grain free tortilla chips, tortillas, salsas, beans, dips, spices, cookies, sauces and corn chips. Their products are designed for people with dietary restrictions. You’ve probably heard of them or tried them unless you’ve been living under a rock. They are an Austin-based food company started by the Garza family. They are passionate about making and sharing real food that’s authentic to their heritage, too.

The response to this acquisition from the health forward community has been at both ends of the spectrum. People are happy for the Garza family but upset that it feels like Big Food wins again. Most people don’t realize that there are about 10 companies that own the majority of products you’d find at the grocery store. Brands like Nestle, General Mills, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Kelloggs own much of what you already buy — even the healthy, organic, natural, healthy conscious brands you buy at small health food stores. Many of these brands sell to the Big Food Companies for a big payday.

Pepsi and so many of these Big Food Companies want to add more healthier brands to their portfolio… and now they are about to own Siete Foods.

Will I still be buying Siete Foods? I’ll get to that…

There are pros and cons to this acquisition.

What are the cons?

Sadly, when these big acquisitions happen ingredients CAN change. They don’t always change but they most certainly can unless it’s put into the contract that ingredients can’t change. Supposedly (I can’t confirm this other than seeing people who know the founders of Hu Kitchen) when Hu Kitchen sold to Mondelez, they put it in their contract that they aren’t allowed to change the ingredients ever. I guess we can only hope and pray that Siete does that, too!

After big acquisitions like this, you will see brands swap healthy oils for seed oils, use lower quality ingredients in place of higher quality ingredients and it’s not overnight either. It’s a long process and sometimes doesn’t happen for a few years. It’s not a guarantee that it will happen but it CAN happen and it’s a big fat bummer.

There are actually many pros.

When we see big sales like this, they are actually able to make the products more accessible, affordable and more available to more people.

When we see big sales like this and we continue to support brands like Siete after the acquisition, Pepsi can see that there is profitability in cleaner and wholesome foods. Remember that when we vote with our dollars it’s pretty powerful. The reason there is still so much crap on the market and that brands still sell their chemical-filled, high fructose corn syrup, red dye 40, artificial blah blah blah ingredients is that people are still buying them and they are buying enough of these products to keep them on the shelves. So, supporting Siete after the sale can actually help bring more accessibility and affordability to the brand.

It does suck big time having to give Pepsi money when we buy Siete products but unless you are actively avoiding 80% of the grocery store than you’re already supporting Nestle, General Mills, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Mondelez, Kelloggs. And I love the idea of supporting smaller brands that make similar and comparable products but just remember that they too will grow and might sell to one of the major Big Food companies someday, too.

I’ve been in the natural products industry for almost 10 years now. I’ve seen so many brands come and go. I’ve met so many owners and founders of all the major brands that we all know and love. They all start their companies for the same reason… okay instead of saying an absolute let’s say that many of them or even most of them start their companies because they started making a product that they couldn’t find on the market whether it was for their kid who had food allergies or intolerances or dietary restrictions or maybe it’s because like Veronica Garza (founder of Siete) she wanted to eat with her family and share the traditional Mexican American recipes and dishes that they were all eating but after being diagnosed with multiple debilitating autoimmune conditions as a teen she started to learn about the ways that food can heal. She started to adopt a low-inflammation, elimination diet and with her family’s support and encouragement, she got in the kitchen and started making grain-free tortillas for the whole fam. Her grandmother even told her that her tortillas were better than the homemade flour tortillas that she had been making for years. They decided share their tortillas and created what we know and love today which is Siete Foods. You see, Siete started with heart and a mission. They have blessed so many people along they way because Veronica isn’t the only one who has to avoid certain ingredients from gluten to grains due to dietary restrictions or food allergies. Because of what The Garza family has created with this Siete empire, so many of us still get to enjoy the many recipes that we grew up with or that our grandparents or parents made us but with ingredients that work for us. For example, my grandpa’s favorite kind of food was Mexican food. My grandma made taco soup, enchiladas, quesadillas, tacos, and so much more that in turn I grew up eating at their house. Because I avoid gluten and grains, there was a period where I couldn’t eat those dishes that I loved and that remind me so much of being at my grandparents house until I found Siete and was able to start making some of my grandma’s recipes.

All of that to say, many brands you see today started the same way… with a mission and a passion to share their recipes but at the same time, I’ve not met a founder of a company that hasn’t really truly wanted to sell their company at some point. Perhaps in the beginning they felt that they would never sell because they didn’t want to support Big Food companies but it’s a business and basically I’m not surprised this acquisition happened. I’m very happy for the Garza family.

I also will continue to purchase Siete Foods unless I see a change in ingredients or quality of ingredients.

Please do what’s best for your family. Perhaps there are other comparable brands on the market that sell similar products but they don’t work for your family because of an ingredient that you or your loved ones can’t have. That’s okay… you do what you need to do for what is best for YOU! For me and my family, their products fit our dietary restrictions and how we choose to eat so until we see ingredients change (which if they ever do, I will keep you posted) then I will still love the brand.

To be totally transparent with you, the Siete family has been so good to me and my family over the years…. and when I had a baby, they sent the sweetest package ever along with a cute onesie for our son. This in no way impacts my opinion above. I am not being paid to say anything about them, I truly do love the people at Siete and I can’t wait to see what they do next.