Chef-founded Mexican food brand specializing
in salsas and mole sauces awarded grand prize following extensive
five-month mentorship program
PURCHASE, N.Y., Dec. 3, 2024
/PRNewswire/ -- Today, PepsiCo (NASDAQ: PEP) announced ¡Ya Oaxaca!,
a food company that crafts artisanal Mexican mole sauces, adobos,
and salsas, as the winner of the ninth class of the Greenhouse
Accelerator. This year marks the second year of the Greenhouse
Accelerator Program: Juntos Crecemos (Together We Grow)
Edition, which aims to elevate emerging high-potential consumer
packaged food and beverage companies inspired by Hispanic flavors
and culture that are better for people and the planet. ¡Ya Oaxaca!
products, with ingredients sourced and produced in Mexico, capture the bold and diverse flavors
of Oaxaca, making it easy to
prepare authentic, chef-crafted and all-natural Mexican meals for
any occasion. ¡Ya Oaxaca! will receive a $100,000 grant and other resources to scale their
operations and grow their business.
The announcement comes after a competitive judging process and a
five-month PepsiCo mentorship program. Founded by Chef Susana Trilling and her sons Kaelin Ulrich, Jesse
Ulrich-Trilling and Azul
Couzens, ¡Ya Oaxaca! was selected from eight promising
finalists by the PepsiCo Selection Committee for applying the
mentorship learnings to grow its revenue by 350%, expand retail
distribution by 200%, and enhance operational efficiencies to
improve gross product margins. Throughout the accelerator, each
finalist received a $20,000 grant and
hands-on coaching from PepsiCo experts across R&D, Supply
Chain, Design, and other key areas. This support was tailored to
help finalists tackle specific business challenges, including
building brand awareness, go-to-market strategies, supply chain
issues, and other specialized needs.
"It inspires me to see how all eight finalists leveraged the
resources and PepsiCo mentorship to elevate their businesses to
impressive heights - from growing revenue to innovating into new
categories within food and beverages and more," said Antonio Escalona, Senior Vice President of
Emerging Business for PepsiCo Foods North America. "¡Ya Oaxaca!
stood out for its commitment to transforming grocery store aisles
with bold flavors and new product variations. The company's
outstanding results show great potential to evolve the food and
beverage industry."
Since expanding to North
America in 2018, the PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator, led by
the PepsiCo Ventures Group, has evolved to assist entrepreneurs in
addressing challenges such as sustainability and unmet consumer
needs. This year's Juntos Crecemos Edition continues the
same fundamental goal: to foster the growth of entrepreneurs.
"We are so honored to be selected as the winner of the PepsiCo
Greenhouse Accelerator: Juntos Crecemos Edition," said
Azul Couzens, Co-Founder of ¡Ya
Oaxaca! "This program and the mentorship of the PepsiCo team have
been invaluable in supporting our business objectives. With the
$100,000 grant, we'll be able to
continue our mission of sharing the flavors of Oaxaca through our line of mole sauces, adobos
and salsas."
For more information about the PepsiCo Greenhouse Accelerator:
Juntos Crecemos Edition, the finalists and their business
innovations, visit
https://greenhouseaccelerator.com/juntos-crecemos/. To learn more
about ¡Ya Oaxaca!, please visit yaoaxaca.com and follow @yaoaxaca
on all social channels.
About PepsiCo
PepsiCo products are enjoyed by
consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200
countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more
than $86 billion in net revenue in
2022, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods
portfolio that includes Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade,
Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo's product
portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages,
including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail
sales.
Guiding PepsiCo is our vision to Be the Global Leader in
Beverages and Convenient Foods by Winning with pep+ (PepsiCo
Positive). pep+ is our strategic end-to-end transformation that
puts sustainability and human capital at the center of how we will
create value and growth by operating within planetary boundaries
and inspiring positive change for the planet and people. For more
information, visit www.pepsico.com, and follow on Twitter,
Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn @PepsiCo.
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SOURCE PepsiCo, Inc.
