Fresh Take: Why Siete’s $1.2 Billion Sale To Pepsi Will Give The Next Generation ‘Permission To Dream’

The Forbes Food Desk has been tracking the rise of Siete Family Foods for nearly a decade. CEO Miguel Garza landed on our 30 Under 30 food list back in 2016, when his family’s company did little more than $1 million in annual revenue. Then, in 2019 I had the exclusive on Siete landing a $90 million investment from private equity firm Stripes to fuel its next stage of growth. 

And wow, did the Texas-based company grow: Siete is getting acquired by PepsiCo. for $1.2 billion. 

The deal means the Garza family, as majority owners, are now among the most successful Latino entrepreneurs in food history. There’s now 10 family members who work at Siete, which derives its name from the seven original family members who ran the tortilla and chip maker since it was founded in 2014. All of the family members are set to stay on through the acquisition. 

While catching up with Miguel Garza this week, he shared that he wants this deal to “shatter the pattern recognition that investors may have” and create even more opportunities for current and future generations of Latinx entrepreneurs. 

And when it comes to that next generation of the Garza family, Miguel, a young father of two daughters, says: “My hope is that we are giving them permission to dream.”

“We have given people an opportunity to see themselves in spaces that they didn’t feel seen,” says Garza. “We are enlarging any vision that they may have thought possible for themselves.”

— Chloe Sorvino, Staff Writer

Order my book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat, out now from Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books.

This is Forbes’ Fresh Take newsletter, which every Friday brings you the latest on the big ideas changing the future of food. Want to get it in your inbox every week? Sign up here.

What’s Fresh

Climate Change Action Can’t Wait For Perfect Solutions

Perfect climate solutions aren’t necessary to take immediate, meaningful action that incorporates the real cost of climate change and nature loss.

Water Scarcity Concerns Prompt Change In Buying Habits, Study Finds

A new study reveals the majority of consumers polled in China and Latin America have stopped buying certain products as concerns about water scarcity continue to grow.

Burrata, Street Corn And More Food Terms Join Merriam-Webster Dictionary

A delicious new dialect has entered the chat, thanks to the 2024 edition of the dictionary.

Thanks for reading the 122nd edition of Forbes Fresh Take! Let me know what you think. Subscribe to Forbes Fresh Take here. 

Chloe Sorvino leads coverage of food and agriculture as a staff writer on the enterprise team at Forbes. Her book, Raw Deal: Hidden Corruption, Corporate Greed and the Fight for the Future of Meat, published on December 6, 2022, with Simon & Schuster’s Atria Books. Her nearly nine years of reporting at Forbes has brought her to In-N-Out Burger’s secret test kitchen, drought-ridden farms in California’s Central Valley, burnt-out national forests logged by a timber billionaire, a century-old slaughterhouse in Omaha and even a chocolate croissant factory designed like a medieval castle in northern France.