At Frito Lay Canada, innovation is as crucial an ingredient as salt. In fact, Marc Guay, president of the Mississauga, Ont.-based potato chips giant, claims it's at the "core of what we do." And, when you look at the lineup of new and improved products the CPG firm has cooked up over the last couple of years - like baked Lays, multigrain Tostitos and a slew of new Doritos flavours - it's hard to argue otherwise.

"Innovation is the lifeblood of our business," says Guay. "I can think of some years where innovation accounted for more than 100% of our growth. So if not for innovation, the business would be flat."

And it is anything but.

Frito Lay Canada is part of Frito-Lay North America, and total North American sales are over $10 billion. Independently, Frito Lay Canada is the market leader in potato chips, tortilla chips and assorted salted snacks, employing approximately 5,000 people in manufacturing, sales and marketing roles, with six manufacturing facilities and many distribution centers from Victoria, B.C. to St John's, Nfld.

The company has had a presence in Canada since the '60s. A division of PepsiCo, Frito Lay merged with Hostess Food Products, which was then a part of General Foods, to create Hostess-Frito Lay in the late '80s. In 1992, PepsiCo bought GF's share of the business and in 2002 the company was re-branded as Frito Lay Canada.

Guay, a 20-year company veteran who once was VP of sales and marketing, says that since the mid '90s, Frito Lay Canada has consistently exceeded key financial targets, and substantially grown market share. He's also proud of exporting "Canadian expertise" around the world. "Several Canadian products, advertising or supply-chain related initiatives have been picked up by other Frito Lay countries in the last few years," explains Guay. "Also, many of our executives (up to 20 in the last couple of years), have taken on bigger roles in the U.S. and Europe. Included in this group were some of our most talented marketing executives."

And top PepsiCo brass have formally acknowledged that Canada's Frito Lay op is leading the global pack on many fronts. In 2002 and 2005, Frito Lay Canada won the Don M. Kendall Co-Founders Award, which rewards the "crème de la crème" in all of PepsiCo, for "businesses that have delivered superior and consistent performance over a rolling three-year period." And it did so in the top-tier, large, developed countries category, up against the likes of the U.S, U.K, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. The jury, comprised of the most senior PepsiCo International execs, judges countries on their innovation, consumer focus, customer collaboration and people development programs, and Frito Lay Canada has been a finalist for a record eight consecutive years.

Seems Canada is quite the breeding ground for good ideas.

Guay explains that he and his staff approach innovation in two ways. The first he calls platform innovation, which essentially involves creating a new category. Guay points to the debut of baked Lays as an example. The company's other focus is product innovation, which could include new flavours, shapes, sizes and formats.