Tudor Crisps facts for kids

Tudor Crisps was a popular brand of potato crisps (also known as potato chips) made by Tudor Food Products. This company started in Sunderland, England, in 1947. It became very well-known in the North East of England and Scotland, selling two-thirds of all crisps in those areas.

In 1960, a bigger crisp company called Smiths Crisps bought Tudor. The Tudor brand continued to make crisps even after Smiths was owned by other companies like General Mills, Associated Biscuits, and Nabisco. However, in 1989, PepsiCo bought Smiths Crisps. PepsiCo decided to focus on their Walkers brand, and eventually, Tudor Crisps stopped being made.

The Story of Tudor Crisps

How Tudor Crisps Grew

By the mid-1950s, Tudor Food Products had opened another factory in Sandyford, Newcastle upon Tyne. They were also planning a large new factory in Peterlee in County Durham. This new factory was going to be very modern and cost a lot of money.

In 1960, Smiths Crisps, the biggest crisp maker in the UK, bought Tudor for £1 million. Smiths was especially interested in the new Peterlee factory. This factory had modern machines from the USA that could make a huge amount of crisps every week.

New Flavours and Ideas

Tudor was often used by Smiths to test out new crisp flavours. For example, the popular Salt & Vinegar flavour was first launched by Tudor. After it was successful, Smiths introduced it to their own brand in 1966 and then across the country in 1967.

Other interesting flavours and snacks were also tried by Tudor:

• Tudor-Ox: A meat-flavoured crisp launched in 1963.
• Chopstix: Potato sticks with Eastern spices, released in 1964.
• Tags: Smile-shaped snacks made from rice, introduced in 1968.
• Mint sauce flavoured crisps: A unique flavour that was also tested.

Changes in Ownership

In 1966, the company that owned Smiths, General Mills, was bought by an American food company. A year later, work began to make the Peterlee factory even bigger.

In 1978, Smiths Crisps was sold again, this time to a British biscuit company called Associated Biscuits. Then, in 1982, Nabisco bought Associated Biscuits. This meant that Smiths and its rival, Walkers, were now owned by the same company.

In 1988, RJR Nabisco was bought by another company. To reduce debt, several businesses were sold off. Smiths and Walkers were sold to PepsiCo in 1989.

The End of Tudor Crisps

The Tudor Crisps brand was stopped in 2003. Walkers decided to focus only on their main crisp range. The Peterlee factory, where Tudor Crisps were made, stayed open for a while longer. However, it finally closed in December 2017. Walkers moved its production to other factories in the UK.

In 2018, the factory was bought by Heather Mills. In 2022, it reopened as the home of VBites, a company that makes vegan snacks.

Tudor Crisp Products

Tudor Crisps made a variety of snacks, including:

• Crisps with unique flavours like Gammon, Pickled Onion, and Spring Onion.
• Flips: Savoury potato snacks.
• Savoury Straws.
• Special Edition Crisps: These included unusual flavours like chocolate!