Walkers (snack foods) facts for kids
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Walkers Salt & Vinegar flavour crisps were first sold in 1967.
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Trade name
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Walkers |
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Formerly
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| Subsidiary | |
| Industry | Food |
| Founded | 1948 |
| Headquarters |
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England
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Area served
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| Products | Snack foods |
| Brands | |
| Owner | PepsiCo |
| Parent | PepsiCo Holdings |
Walkers Snack Foods Limited, known simply as Walkers, is a British company famous for making potato crisps and other snacks. It is one of the most popular snack brands in the UK and Ireland.
Walkers was started in 1948 in Leicester, England, by a man named Henry Walker. Today, it is owned by the American company PepsiCo, which also owns the American snack brand Frito-Lay.
The Walkers factory in Leicester is the biggest crisp factory in the world. It makes more than 11 million bags of crisps every single day and uses about 800 tons of potatoes to do it. It takes about 35 minutes to make a bag of crisps, from the potato arriving at the factory to the finished bag being ready to ship.
The company is well-known for its many crisp flavours. The most popular ones are Cheese and Onion (created in 1954), Salt and Vinegar (created in 1967), and Ready Salted. Famous footballer Gary Lineker, who was born in Leicester, has been the face of Walkers since 1995 and has appeared in many of its TV adverts.
Contents
History of Walkers
From Butcher Shop to Crisp Factory
The Walkers story began in the 1880s when Henry Walker took over a butcher's shop in Leicester. After World War II, meat was hard to get in the UK because of rationing. This meant the butcher shop wasn't doing very well.
In 1948, the company decided to try making something new. Potato crisps were becoming very popular, so they started slicing and frying potatoes by hand. The first crisps they made were simply sprinkled with salt and sold for threepence a bag.
The First Flavoured Crisps
At first, all crisps were sold plain. You would get a little blue bag of salt to sprinkle on them yourself. But in the 1950s, scientists learned how to capture the chemicals that create different flavours.
In 1954, an Irish company called Tayto was the first to sell flavoured crisps, creating a Cheese and Onion flavour. Walkers soon followed with its own Cheese and Onion flavour, inspired by the popular Ploughman's lunch. In 1967, they launched Salt and Vinegar, inspired by Britain's love for fish and chips.
New Owners
The Walker family sold the company in 1970. It was later bought by Nabisco, another American food company. In 1989, Walkers was bought by PepsiCo, the company that owns it today. Under PepsiCo, Walkers grew to become the UK's leading crisp brand.
The famous Walkers logo, with the red ribbon, is very similar to the logo of Lay's, another crisp brand owned by PepsiCo.
Making the Crisps
Walkers is proud that it uses 100% British potatoes for its crisps. To keep the crisps fresh, the company started using foil bags in 1993. Since 1996, the bags have been filled with nitrogen gas, not just air. This helps protect the crisps from being crushed and keeps them crunchy.
In 2006, Walkers started using a special type of sunflower oil called "SunSeed" to make its crisps healthier by reducing the amount of saturated fat.
Famous Adverts and Campaigns
Walkers is known for its fun advertising campaigns, many featuring footballer Gary Lineker. In the 1990s, they even released special "Salt and Lineker" crisps.
Do Us a Flavour
Since 2008, Walkers has run a competition called "Do Us a Flavour," where people can suggest new and unusual crisp flavours. The public then votes for their favourite, and the winning flavour is sometimes sold for good. Some winning flavours have included Builder's Breakfast and English Roast Beef & Yorkshire Pudding.
Other Campaigns
Walkers has also worked with other celebrities. For Comic Relief in 2011, four comedians each supported a new flavour. In 2019, the company teamed up with the famous 1990s girl band, the Spice Girls, for an advert.
In 2022, Walkers held a competition to find the best heart-shaped crisp, with a prize of £100,000 for the person who found it.
Walkers Products
Walkers makes many different types of crisps and snacks.
Walkers Crisps
The main range of Walkers crisps includes these popular flavours:
- Ready Salted
- Cheese & Onion
- Salt & Vinegar
- Prawn Cocktail
- Roast Chicken
- Smoky Bacon
- Tomato Ketchup
- Pickled Onion
A fun fact about Walkers is its bag colours. For most crisp brands, Cheese & Onion is in a green bag and Salt & Vinegar is in a blue one. Walkers does it the other way around. The company says it has always used these colours.
Other Walkers Snacks
Walkers also makes many other well-known snacks. Some of these were originally made by another company called Smith's.
- Baked: A healthier option that is baked, not fried.
- Monster Munch: A monster-foot-shaped corn snack.
- Quavers: A light and curly cheese-flavoured snack.
- Wotsits: A cheesy corn puff snack.
- Squares: A crunchy, square-shaped crisp.
- French Fries: A thin, fry-shaped potato snack.
- Sensations: A range of crisps with more grown-up flavours like Thai Sweet Chilli.
Environmental Impact
Like many snack companies, Walkers has faced questions about its packaging. Crisp packets are difficult to recycle and can end up as litter. In 2018, people started posting empty crisp packets back to the company to protest.
In response, Walkers launched a recycling scheme for crisp packets. People can now drop off used packets at special collection points across the country. While this was a good step, some groups pointed out that millions of packets are still sold every day, and more needs to be done to reduce waste.
Images for kids
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Quavers cheese flavour. Smith's first made them in 1968, and Walkers has made them since 1997.
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Walkers has made Wotsits since 2003 after buying the brand from Golden Wonder.
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A variety of Walkers crisps in a vending machine.
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Walkers sponsored its home-town football club, Leicester City, and its stadium for many years.
See also
In Spanish: Walkers para niños
