Pohlad was instrumental in establishing PepsiAmericas, a process that began in 1962 when he entered the bottling business with an investment in the Minneapolis/St Paul Pepsi bottling plant.
He went on to acquire several bottling plants throughout the US, later to be purchased by Minnesota Enterprises Incorporated Corporation.
After becoming a Fortune 500 company, MEI Corp sold and merged most of its bottling assets with PepsiCo in 1986. However, a few years later, Pohlad began to acquire Pepsi bottling businesses again.
Through a series of mergers, these businesses grew to become PepsiAmericas, a Fortune 500 company with operations in the US, central and eastern Europe and the Caribbean.
The former used-car salesman made his initial success in the world of banking, but other investments soon followed, which included real estate, entertainment and the car industry.
He became a household name with the purchase of the Minnesota Twins baseball team in 1984.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024
