The Smith's Snackfood Company facts for kids
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| Proprietary company | |
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1920 in Cricklewood, England (UK branch). 13 May 1932 (Australia branch) |
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| Headquarters |
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Australia
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Area served
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Oceania United Kingdom |
| Products | Snack foods, potato chips |
| Parent | PepsiCo |
The Smith's Snackfood Company is a popular brand of snacks. It started in the UK and Australia. Today, it's owned by a big company called PepsiCo. Smiths is most famous for its delicious potato chips.
The company began in the United Kingdom in 1920. It was started by Frank Smith and Jim Viney. Back then, they sold plain potato chips with a small twist of salt in a paper bag. These were sold all around London. In the 1960s, a rival company, Golden Wonder, became very popular with their Cheese & Onion chips. Smiths fought back by creating the first Salt & Vinegar flavour chips in 1967.
After becoming successful in the UK, Frank Smith started the company in Australia in 1932. Over the years, both the UK and Australian parts of Smiths were owned by different companies. But eventually, PepsiCo bought both of them. The UK business was bought in 1989, and the Australian business in 1998. In the UK, Smiths is now part of the Walkers brand. In Australia, Smiths is still the main brand.
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Smiths in the United Kingdom
Smith's Potato Crisps was created by Frank Smith and Jim Viney after World War I. Frank Smith used to manage a grocery business that sold potato chips. He decided to make his own. He turned some garages in Cricklewood, London, into a chip factory. He sold his chips to local shops. By 1920, he had 12 full-time workers.
Frank Smith had a clever idea. He sold plain chips with a small blue packet of salt. People could sprinkle the salt on their chips themselves. In 1927, Smith bought out Jim Viney's share of the company. The company then moved to a bigger factory in Brentford, London. By 1929, Smiths had seven factories across the UK. In 1934, Smiths made 95% of all the chips sold in Britain. That was 200 million packets each year!
By 1956, the company was making 10 million packets every week. In 1960, Smiths bought a rival company called Tudor Crisps. Two years later, they bought other food companies too. After Tayto in Ireland made Cheese & Onion chips, Golden Wonder (Smiths' main competitor) made their own. Smiths then launched their famous Salt & Vinegar flavour in 1967. This started a long "flavour war" between chip companies.
In 1966, a big American food company, General Mills, bought Smiths. Smiths launched a fun "Do The Crunch" advertising campaign. In 1967, a young Phil Collins (who later became a famous musician) toured the UK. He taught people a "crunch dance" for the chips. In 1977, Smiths launched Monster Munch chips, which were aimed at kids. They were first called "The Prime Monster" but changed to "Monster Munch" in 1978. In 1978, General Mills sold Smiths to a British biscuit company.
Later, Smiths was bought by Nabisco in 1982. This meant Smiths and its rival, Walkers, were owned by the same company. In 1989, PepsiCo bought both Smiths and Walkers. At that time, Walkers was very popular in the UK. PepsiCo decided to focus on the Walkers brand. Many products that used to be Smiths, like Quavers, became Walkers products.
Popular UK Products
- Chipsticks: These are crunchy corn snacks shaped like french fries. They come in salt and vinegar flavour.
- Frazzles: These are corn snacks shaped like bacon. They taste like bacon.
- Bacon Fries: These are crunchy snacks that taste like bacon.
- Scampi Fries: These are crunchy snacks that taste like scampi.
- Funyuns: These are crunchy snacks shaped like onion rings. They taste like onion.
- Snaps: These are potato snacks shaped like curled rectangles. They come in spicy tomato flavour.
Smiths in Australia
After making Smiths successful in the UK, Frank Smith went to Australia. He started a new company there. Smith's Crisps were first made in Australia in 1931. He worked with a friend, George Ensor, in a rented building in Surry Hills, Sydney. The chips were cooked in 20 gas-fired pots. Then, they were packed by hand. Nestle vans delivered them.
Early Smith's Potato Crisps were sold in small packets. They also included "twist of salt" sachets. In 1932, the first Australian Smith's company closed down because of the Great Depression. But just three months later, George Ensor bought the business. On May 13, 1932, Smith's Potato Crisps (Australia) was formed. The UK Smith's Company owned most of it.
After World War II, the company grew very fast. They started using a continuous cooker to make chips faster. In 1960, they introduced bigger packs for cinemas.
In 1961, Smiths launched its first flavoured chip in Australia: Chicken. It was extremely popular! Many other chip companies started making chicken-flavoured chips too. Other early flavours were Original (plain salted) and Salt & Vinegar. In the 1970s, Barbecue flavour was added for their crinkle-cut chips. In the 1980s, Cheese & Onion was added. These five flavours – Original Salted (blue packet), Salt & Vinegar (magenta packet), Chicken (green packet), Barbecue (orange packet), and Cheese & Onion (yellow packet) – have been the main flavours ever since. Smiths has also tried many "limited edition" flavours. In the late 1980s, the company introduced a famous advertising character: Gobbledok. He was a chip-obsessed alien, like E.T.
In 1998, PepsiCo took over the company. At that time, Smiths Snackfood company was Australia's biggest snack maker. PepsiCo already owned Frito-Lay, another large snack company. To avoid problems with fair trading, PepsiCo sold some brands and factories. These brands included CC's, Cheezels, Thins, and Samboy. They were sold to another company called Snack Brands Australia.
Australians usually say "chips" for crisps. But Smiths called their product "crisps" until 2003. Now, they are called Smith's Chips.
Product Safety and Quality
Smith's Snackfood Company has had to recall products a few times. This happens when there's a problem with the chips. For example, in 2007, 2008, and 2009, some Crinkle Cut chips were recalled. Small pieces of rubber were found in the packets. In 2022 and 2023, plastic pieces were found in Crinkle Cut chips, leading to more recalls.
In 2016, Smiths was fined for misleading information on some rice snacks. The packaging said the snacks "Meets School Canteen Guidelines." It also showed a picture of a sandwich and an apple. But the small print said the product only met the "Amber" guidelines, which meant it was not the healthiest choice. Smiths has since removed this logo from the product.
Popular Australian Products
- Burger Rings: These are ring-shaped snacks that taste like hamburgers.
- Cheetos: These are cheesy or spicy puffs.
- Cool Pak popcorn
- Doritos: These are triangle-shaped corn chips.
- Grain Waves: These are chips made from whole grains.
- Maxx: These are thick, ridged chips with different flavours.
- Nobby's: This brand sells different kinds of nuts, like peanuts and cashews.
- Parker's: This company makes hard pretzels and unique flavoured pretzels.
- Red Rock Deli: These are thick-sliced, premium potato chips.
- Sakata: These are rice crackers.
- Smith's Crinkle Cut: These are potato chips with wavy edges.
- Smith's Popped: These are potato snacks that are air-popped, not fried.
- Lay's Stax: These are stacked potato chips, similar to Pringles.
- Smith's Thinly Cut: These are very thin potato chips.
- Twisties: These are twisted corn snacks that come in cheese or chicken flavour.
Past Products in UK & Australia
- Bats: Bat-shaped snacks with a "Batburger" flavour from the 1970s.
- Bones: Bone-shaped snacks with salt and vinegar flavour from the 1970s.
- Cheezers: Cheese-flavoured corn puffs.
- Chinese Quavers: Spicy beef flavoured.
- Chipitos: Toasted cheese puffs.
- Claws: Claw-shaped snacks with bacon flavour from the 1970s.
- Crispy Tubes: Tube-shaped snacks from the 1980s.
- Fangs: Fang-shaped snacks with cheese and onion flavour from the 1970s.
- French Fries: Small potato straws that looked and tasted like french fries. Now made by Snack Brands Australia and Walkers.
- Jackets: Chips from the mid-1980s where the potato skin was left on.
- Lay's: Thinly sliced potato chips.
- Monster Munch: Still made today, but under the Walkers name.
- OnYums: Onion-flavoured rings.
- Quavers: Introduced in 1968, now sold under the Walkers name.
- Ribs: Rib-shaped snacks with vinegar flavour from the 1970s.
- Ruffles: Crinkle-cut potato chips.
- Smiths Salt 'n' Shake: Still made today, but under the Walkers name.
- Smith's Crisps: The original plain chips.
- Smith's Crinkle Cut Crisps: Crinkled chips in various flavours.
- Smith's Selections: Thinly sliced potato chips, now called Smith's Thinly Cut.
- Smokees: Bacon-flavoured curls.
- Squares: Square-shaped potato chips in different flavours. Still made under the Walkers name.
- Sunbites: Wholegrain chips.
- Thins: Thinly sliced potato chips. Now made by Snack Brands Australia.
- Tuba Loops: Tube-shaped potato snacks.
- Twists: Twisted snacks from the 1970s in Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, and Ready Salted.
- Twisted: Spicy corn puffs, now part of the Cheetos brand.
- Wafflers: Bacon-flavoured waffles.
- Zodiacs: Mystery-flavoured snacks shaped like zodiac signs from the 1970s.
See also
