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Chip Chat Newsletter, 1960

Later Years

When Frederick Meyer's company turned 25 years old in 1956, Red Dot dominated the Midwest snack food industry with eight factories making products for 35,000 retail outlets.

On May 5, 1961, Meyer sold his company to H.W. Lay & Company. Despondent over the sale, Meyer killed himself four days later. Later that year, Lay's merged with The Frito Company to become Frito-Lay, Inc. The Red Dot Potato Chip bag featured here was made during the years that Frito-Lay produced the Red Dot brand.

In 1970 Lay's sold the Red Dot brand to the H.H. Evon Company in Little Rock, Arkansas, who discontinued the product line and closed down the Madison factory in 1973.

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Red Dot Potato Chip Bag, 1961-1970

Wisconsin Historical Museum object # 2003.119.1

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Frederick J. Meyer, 1956

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Map of Red Dot Foods Territory, 1956