Smith's, known as Smiths in the United Kingdom, is a snack food brand owned by PepsiCo, best known for its brand of potato crisps. In the United Kingdom, where the business initially started, it is now a sub-brand made by PepsiCo subsidiary Walkers Snack Foods, while in Australia, The Smith's Snackfood Company is the PepsiCo subsidiary that manufacturers and sells its crisp products. The company was founded in the United Kingdom in 1920 by Frank Smith and Jim Viney, originally packaging a twist of salt with its crisps in greaseproof paper bags which were sold around London. Incorporated as a private limited company in 1930, Smith's became the dominant brand of crisps in Britain and remained so until the 1960s when Golden Wonder took over with Cheese & Onion, Smith's countered by creating Salt & Vinegar flavour (first tested by their north-east England subsidiary Tudor) which was launched nationally in 1967. Smith's came under the same owners as Walkers in 1982, when Nabisco purchased the business. After establishing the product in his home country, Smith set up the company in Australia in 1932 and the Netherlands in 1958. All three Smiths companies underwent various owners, but were reunited under PepsiCo ownership, with the UK business being purchased in 1989, the Dutch business in 1992 and the Australian business in 1998. The Smith's brand is no longer active today in Benelux, and was replaced by the Lay's brand in 2001. Since 1982, Smith's have been produced under licence in Dubai by Saigol & Gulf, and sold across the AGCC, Pakistan and India as well as parts of Africa.
United Kingdom
Smith's Potato Crisps (Ltd.) was formed by entrepreneurs Frank Smith and Jim Viney in the United Kingdom after World War I. Smith had been a manager for a Smithfield wholesale grocery business which sold potato crisps from 1913. Deciding to make his own, Smith converted garages in Cricklewood, London, into a crisp factory, selling to local businesses. By 1920, he had 12 full-time employees and was producing half a million packets a week. Smith conceived the idea of selling unseasoned potato crisps with a small blue sachet of salt that could be sprinkled over them. In 1927, after buying Jim Viney's share of the business, the company expanded into a factory in Brentford, London. In 1929, Smiths had seven factories in the UK and the following year it was incorporated as a private limited company. By 1934, 200 million packets of crisps were sold in Britain each year, 95 percent of which were manufactured by Smith's. In 1939, the footballers of Portsmouth won the last FA Cup final before the war on a daily diet of Smith's crisps. During World War II, crisps were packed into British troop ships and sent off to allied forces. In the 1950s, fictional matriarch Doris Archer from BBC Radio's The Archers published a cookbook advocating the use of "delicious Smith's potato crisps, crushed to farthing size" in various meals. By 1956, the company was making 10 million packets every week. In 1960, Smith's purchased northern rival Tudor Crisps for £1 million. Smith's followed up this expansion two years later by purchasing the biscuit and wafer producer G & T Bridgewater and the Cardiff-based nut company Snackpak Food Products. Following the creation of Cheese & Onion flavour by Tayto in Ireland, Golden Wonder (Smiths' main competitor in Britain) produced their Cheese & Onion version, and Smith's countered with Salt & Vinegar (tested first by their north-east England subsidiary Tudor) which launched nationally in 1967, starting a two-decade-long flavour war. In 1966, Smith's was purchased by the American food producer General Mills and led to the legal renaming of Smith's Potato Crisps to Smith's Food Group in 1967 and a new head office in Kew. Smith's launched a ‘Do The Crunch' advertising campaign; in 1967 a young Phil Collins toured the UK teaching people the crunch dance. Aimed at children, Monster Munch were launched by Smiths in Britain in 1977. Originally called "The Prime Monster" (a play on The Prime Minister, and as part of a wider campaign), they were renamed "Monster Munch" in 1978. In 1978, Smith's was sold by its parent company, General Mills, to the British biscuit giant Associated Biscuits. Associated Biscuits was purchased by Nabisco in 1982, bringing Smith's under the same ownership as rival Walkers. In 1988, RJR Nabisco was purchased in a leverage buyout by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, and to reduce debt several business were sold to French conglomerate BSN, who quickly sold on Smith's and Walkers to PepsiCo in 1989. At the time Walkers had a third of the crisp market in the United Kingdom, while Smith's had a third of the extruded snacks market, making them the market leader. In 1990, Smith's launched the PepsiCo product Cheetos, selling the product for 10 years before it was dropped. Throughout the 1990s, major products released under the Smiths brand began to slowly transition to the Walkers brand, including Quavers (1993), Monster Munch (1994), Squares (2001), Salt & Shake (2003) and Frazzles (2005) The Walkers brand was eventually turned into PepsiCo's main Crisp brand, using a campaign featuring former England international footballer turned television presenter Gary Lineker. The Smith's brand would remain in use as PepsiCo's value snack lineup, which by May 2013, had consisted of classic Smith's mainstays Chipsticks and Frazzles, former Walkers product Snaps, as well as Wafflers and Twisted; two products that were first introduced as Wotsits variants. In October 2025, it was announced that production of Snaps at the Newark Road factory in Lincoln would end.
Current products Chipsticks – Extruded corn starch snack in the shape of a french fry, in a salt and vinegar flavour. Frazzles – Extruded corn starch snack in the shape of a bacon rasher, in a bacon flavour. Bacon Fries – Extruded cereal starch snack, in a bacon flavour. Scampi Fries – Extruded cereal starch snack, in a scampi flavour. Snaps – Potato snack in the shape of a curled up rectangle, in a spicy tomato flavour (originally produced by Walkers). Smith's Crisps – Potato crisps in Ready Salted, Salt & Vinegar or Cheese & Onion flavours in 5-pack multipacks.
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