Smiths (snack foods)


Smith's 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 which was launched nationally in 1967. Smith's came under common ownership with Walkers in 1982.
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 The Smith's brand is no longer active today in Benelux, and was replaced by the Lay's brand in 2001.

United Kingdom

Smith's Potato Crisps 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 produced their Cheese & Onion version, and Smith's countered with Salt & Vinegar 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", 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. Subsequently, PepsiCo partially withdrew the Smith's brand, in favour of fellow British brand Walkers, which was heavily marketed by PepsiCo in a campaign using former England international footballer turned television presenter Gary Lineker. Many of the products previously marketed by Smith's became labelled as Walkers, such as Quavers.
In 2013, PepsiCo added two new products to the Smith's range, Twisted Flamin Hot and Wafflers Bacon flavour, which was seen as the value brand against the main line Walkers brand. 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.
  • Funyuns – Extruded cereal starch snack in the shape of onion rings, in an onion flavour.
  • Snaps – Potato snack in the shape of a curled up rectangle, in a spicy tomato flavour.
  • Smith's Crisps – Potato crisps in Ready Salted, Salt & Vinegar or Cheese & Onion flavours in 5-pack multipacks.

    Australia

After establishing the product and name in the UK, Frank Smith moved to set up a subsidiary in Australia. Smith's Crisps were first manufactured in Australia in 1931 with an associate, George Ensor, in leased premises in Sydney's Surry Hills. They were originally made in 20 gas fired cooking pots, then packed by hand and distributed by Nestle confectionery vans.
Smith's Potato Crisps sold its early crisps in three penny packets, 24 to a tin. "Twist of salt" sachets were included before pre-salting had been introduced. In March 1932, Smith's Potato Crisps Ltd. went into voluntary liquidation as a result of the Great Depression. However, three months later, George Ensor tendered for the business put up for sale by the liquidators, and on 13 May 1932, Smith's Potato Crisps was formed with the UK Smith's Company holding a majority interest over minor shareholders. Growth after World War II was rapid, so a continuous cooker process was introduced to replace the individual cooking pots and in 1960 the production of a one shilling pack for cinemas and a box pack for four shillings was initiated.
In 1961, Smith's introduced its first flavoured chip – chicken. It was a very popular flavour, influencing most competitors at the time to adopt a Chicken variation. Other flavours released were Original and Salt & Vinegar. Later, in the 1970s, Barbecue was added as a flavour for Smiths crinkle cut chips, and in the 1980s Cheese & Onion was added. These five flavours—Original Salted, Salt & Vinegar, Chicken, Barbecue and Cheese & Onion, the food group holding company in British Tobacco Co., bought a 41.5% share of Smith's Potato Crisps 's parent company, including all Australian shareholders. Over the next 20 years, other takeovers and new products drove growth. In 1990, the APD name was replaced by CCA Snackfoods. In January 1993, CCA Snackfoods was sold to United Biscuits of Britain and was renamed to Smith's Snackfood Company.
As of 1998, the Smith's Snackfood company was Australia's largest producer of salty snack foods. It was acquired in August of that year by Frito-Lay, the second largest producer of salt snack foods in Australia, which is in turn owned by PepsiCo. Frito-Lay's Australian business was merged into Smiths, including its brands Lay's, Doritos, Cheetos, Ruffles and Tostitos. To prevent the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission from intervening for unfair trading practices Frito-Lay divested a range of brands, manufacturing facilities, including plants in Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria. The package was named Snack Brands Australia and was sold to Dollar Sweets Holdings. In that package included the brands sold were CC's, Cheezels, Thins and Samboy.
Despite Australians using the term "chips" for crisps, Smith's called their product crisps until as late as 2003. They are now labelled as Smith's Chips. As of 2010–2011, portions contained in "large" bags of Smith's Snackfood products have diminished, down from 200g to 175g.
Smith's Snackvend Stand is the branch of the company that operates vending machines.

Recalls

Products produced by The Smith's Snackfood Company have been recalled on several occasions, including:
  • On three occasions, February 2007, December 2008 and June 2009, the Crinkle Cut chips were recalled after rubber pieces were discovered in packets.
  • On two occasions, in October 2022 and May 2023, the Crinkle Cut chips were recalled after plastic pieces were discovered in packets.

    Misleading representation of products

In July 2016, The Smith's Snackfood Company was fined $10,800 by the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission for misleading representation on its Sakata Paws Pizza Supreme Rice Snacks, which included a logo with the words “Meets School Canteen Guidelines” and an image of a sandwich and apple. The disclaimer that the product had only met the 'Amber' criteria of the National Healthy School Canteens Guidelines were in small font and on the other side of the packaging to the logo. Smith's has since removed the logo from the product.

Current products

  • Burger Rings – Hamburger-flavoured snack.
  • Cheetos – Cheese or flamin' hot flavour puffs.
  • Cool Pak Popcorn
  • Doritos – Corn chip
  • Grain Waves – Wholegrain chips.
  • Maxx – Multiple flavoured chips.
  • Nobby's – Nuts
  • Parker's – Australia's largest pretzel company – typical hard pretzels and a variety of uniquely flavoured pretzels, including flavours such as Tomato & Basil & Sweet Chili.
  • Red Rock Deli – Thick-sliced premium potato chips.
  • Sakata – Rice crackers
  • Smith's Crinkle Cut – Crinkle-cut potato chips.
  • Smith's Popped – Air-popped potato snacks.
  • Lay's Stax – A competitor of Pringles.
  • Smith's Thinly Cut – Thinly sliced potato chips available in various flavours.
  • Twisties – A cheese or chicken flavoured extruded snack.