Axium Foods pushes its own snack food label: Pajeda's

Axium Foods, based in South Beloit, Ill., is a division of McCleary Inc., which for nearly 50 years has been making snack foods sold under store labels or by other companies.

Axium is making a push into the market with its own snack foods label: Pajeda's.

Company officials believe they've got a quality product that fills a price niche—somewhere between the store brands and the industry's big boys.

"We know that we're good at making a really good product,"Stokely said. "Frito-Lay dominates the industry, and we know we can't compete with them.

"But we can leverage our strengths at being able to make a really good product at a low cost."

While the lack of a large marketing budget helps keep Axium's costs low, it also makes it difficult to promote the product around the country.

"We're looking at different marketing techniques to get the product to market, but it's something we've never had to do,"Stokely said. "We're feeling our way through the marketing skill sets."

Pajeda's are available in 11 varieties, including three products similar to Frito-Lay's Cheetos brand. Pajeda's tortilla chips are available in several different flavors, as well as a party mix.