Former PepsiCo President Derek Lewis Talks Consumer Intention

**SPEAKER_1** (0:02)
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**Romaine Bostick** (0:07)
A lot of people, they know your life story. Guy who started out basically at the bottom rung of Pepsi, worked your way up to be head of Pepsi's North American South Division. Your last role there was head of their, basically their multicultural, I guess if you will, sort of investment business, the idea of investing in black businesses and underserved businesses. And then you retire.
Why?

**Derek Lewis** (0:30)
Well, I retired at the end of 22 I wanted to shift really from a long, great career at PepsiCo 30, 35 years, three and a half decades.
What a great run, a great company that has a ton of obviously powerful brands, powerful operational capabilities, powerful talent leadership culture was unbelievable. So, but after 35 years, I wanted to do something a little different. I wanted to pivot away from just being a go-getter. I was a go-getter for really most of my entire career. And I wanted to shift to something more balanced. I wanted to be not only a go-getter, but also a go-giver. And so I want to have a little bit more purpose in my life. And so the things that I've shifted to now are certainly more purposeful to me. And I keep that balance. So I didn't want to shift completely to being just a go-giver, no go-getter. So now I've found that right balance and that right rhythm in my life now. So I've been enjoying that since I retired and it's been a really fun ride. The second chapter or the next act has been just as fun.

**Romaine Bostick** (1:21)
But part of that chapter though is, I mean, you've made some investments in the restaurant space, basically as a franchisee. Why restaurants?

**Derek Lewis** (1:28)
You know what, I had this affinity for restaurants growing up, Philly, Delphi of food, cheese steaks and pretzels. I grew up on those. I grew up in DC but it was always a treat when I was able to eat a cheese steak, eat a pretzel. I moved around the country a lot and I craved those foods. I always craved the Philly cheese steak when I was living out west. I lived in Phoenix, I lived in Portland, I lived in Denver. And I could never really find a great cheese steak, a really great soft pretzel. So I've always found myself craving those foods. And when I came back in my general management roles at Pepsi and essentially also the multicultural role, I ended up working with a lot of entrepreneurs, particularly one, the brand I own now, Big Dave's Cheese Steaks. And so I supported that brand in terms of my work. I also got to love the business itself, love the owner, love the business itself. So when I retired, we talked and here I am now in the business, a couple of units open in Orlando, also have a Philadelphia pretzel factory.
So being a multi-brand franchisee is a fun thing to do. I'm creating jobs, I'm adding economic impact. I've got great relationships within the Orlando community, particularly within the sports realm as well. So these collaborations are really, really powerful to get the brands off the ground and fulfill engagement.

**Romaine Bostick** (2:38)
Well, when I asked that, it seems like a tough business. I mean, selling consumer staples is a tough business, but restaurants has to be even tougher. And I was looking at some of the locations that you've opened up since you got involved, and they do seem to be tethered to sports venues, you know, not stand-alone restaurants. And I am curious as to what that says about the restaurant model overall. Is it an easier go if you can sort of be tethered to an existing sort of facility of some sort that brings people in?

**Derek Lewis** (3:07)
I think it definitely helps create awareness. I mean, the reason why I got in there is I knew that I was going to be able to have these opportunities with the Kia Center and Orlando Magic. I was going to have these opportunities with Florida Central Sports and the Cheez-It Bowl and the Pop-Tart Bowl. I knew I was going to have opportunities with UCF and the University of Central Florida athletic brands. So going in, I knew that to create awareness, exposure, and help drive, generate traffic, having these collaborations, I think, was going to absolutely be a recipe for success to drive it. It's been building. It's been a really strong start with those concepts participating in the brand, having the licensing and the rights to do a lot of collaborations inside the arenas and outside. So it's a great start with that. I think, ultimately, having a venue or platform to create awareness and exposure, particularly where brand is new, I think is really important in the early cycle that brand is existing. I learned a lot of that from my PepsiCo experience.