Former janitor turned executive Richard Montañez has filed a lawsuit against PepsiCo after the company denied his claims. Montañez had claimed to have created the popular snack brand, Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, which the company denied. According to the court filing, Montañez claims his career was ruined following the food giant’s denial.
On Wednesday, July 10, 2024, Montañez filed a lawsuit against his former employer, PepsiCo, in a California Court. According to Montañez, PepsiCo initially supported and promoted his invention story and movie. However, the company has taken sides with other former employees claiming that Montañez was not its creator.
Consequently, Montañez claimed it affected his reputation and financial opportunities, leading to the cancellation of his life’s documentary. Montañez has now decided to sue the company for discrimination, fraud, and defamation.
Richard Montañez Account on Creating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos
According to Montañez’s account, his story began in 1977, after he got a job as a janitor in the Frito-Lay plant in Rancho Cucamonga. Montañez had realized a machine at his plant had stopped working, leaving a bunch of unflavored Cheetos. Subsequently, Montañez took the unflavored batch home and tried mixing the Cheetos with chili powder.
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The purpose, according to Montañez, was to mimic the flavor of elote, a Mexican dish of grilled seasoned corn, on the Cheetos. When Montañez at last achieved the intended outcomes through trial and error, he asked to meet with Roger Enrico, the CEO of PepsiCo. During their 1991 meeting, Montañez shared his ideas with Enrico, who approved them and gave the go-ahead for the company to pursue them.
Richard Montañez’s Rise
The lawsuit states that PepsiCo backed Montañez by backing his claim of creating Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and sending him to speaking engagements. However, Montañez claims he was excluded from the discussions and testing of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos by PepsiCo’s research and development departments. According to Montañez, after Flamin’ Hot Cheeto’s success in the market in 1992, he kept on creating more similar snacks for the company.
Consequently, Montañez stated that he was promoted to the position of business development manager for the company’s Southern California division. Montañez eventually climbed up to the position of vice president of multicultural marketing and sales for PepsiCo.
As a result of his rise and inspirational story, he became highly asked to come and speak at engagements. Subsequently, in 2019, Montañez retired from PepsiCo to become a full-time motivational speaker.
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Richard Montañez and PepsiCo’s Fallout
However, in 2021, Montañez suffered a devastating blow to his reputation, after PepsiCo claimed he did not create the snack. According to a Los Angeles Times article, PepsiCo had backed a group of former employees who claimed to have been working on the product when Montañez approached them.
The article stated that the former employees had developed the snack and its name ‘Flamin’ Hot.’ In 2023, despite not denying the story, Frito-Lay, a subsidiary of PepsiCo issued a statement.
Frito-Lay said, “The information we shared with the media has been misconstrued by some, resulted in confusion on where we stand, and has put a strain on our valued friendship with Richard Montañez.” The snack company further added that Montañez is an important part of its history, crediting him as a contributor to its success.
Richard Montañez
Montañez is a Mexican-American businessman, author, and motivational speaker born in 1958. After dropping out of school, Montañez was hired by Frito-Lay as a janitor and went on to become an executive in the company. The 2023 movie Flamin’ Hot, which was produced by Meagan Good’s ex-husband Devon Franklin, was based on this assertion.
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In Ontario, California, Montañez was born into a Mexican-American family. Raised in an unincorporated town outside of Los Angeles, Guasti, he was one of 10 siblings living in a migrant work camp. After leaving school, he worked as a laborer until Frito-Lay recruited him as a janitor at its Rancho Cucamonga plant in 1976 when he was eighteen years old.
Did Richard Montañez Make Money From Hot Cheetos?
Montañez climbed up to a very high position within PepsiCo, he was the vice president of multicultural marketing and sales when retired he retired in 2019. His job saw him supervising multiple cultural sales and marketing across different divisions of PepsiCo in Northern America. However, while his exact remuneration remains unknown, Montañez has a net worth of about $15 million.
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