Walkers
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- This article is about the snack food, for the locomotive activity see walking.
Walkers is a snack food manufacturer in the United Kingdom best known for manufacturing crisps.
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[edit] History
In the 1880s Henry Walker moved from Mansfield to Leicester to take over an established butcher's shop in the high street. Meat rationing after World War II saw the factory output drop dramatically and the company looked at alternatives to make use of the wasted capacity. With potato crisps being increasingly popular with the public, managing director R.E. Gerrard helped the company shift focus and began hand-slicing and frying potatoes.
[edit] Present day
Walkers are now owned by Frito-Lay, which in turn is a subsidiary of Pepsico, though they are still a significant presence in Leicester and sponsor Leicester City football team's stadium, the Walkers Stadium. Gary Lineker, formerly a Leicester City footballer is now the face of the company, starring in most of their advertising campaigns.
The official website states that an estimated "11 million people will eat a Walkers product every day". The company employs over 4000 people in 15 locations.
In 2000, Walkers' 1995 advert starring Gary Lineker was named the 9th best television commercial of all time, in a poll conducted by The Sunday Times and Channel 4.
In February 2006, Walkers changed their brand label and typeset. They also announced they were to reduce the saturated fat in their crisps by 70%.[1]
As of late 2006, the company has added nutrition values on the front of the Walkers crisps packets.
Many of Walkers brands were formerly branded under the Smiths Crisps name. This comes from the time when Walkers, Smiths and Tudor were the three main brands of Nabisco's UK snack division with Tudor being marketed mainly in the north of England and Walkers in the south. After the takeover by Pepsico the Tudor name was dropped and the Smiths brand has gradually been phased out in favour of Walkers.
The only products currently retaining the Smiths brand are Salt & Vinegar and Ready Salted Chipsticks and the "Savoury Selection" which includes Bacon Flavour Fries, Scampi Flavour Fries and Cheese Flavoured Moments.
Notably, Walkers package their cheese and onion crisps in blue packets, and salt and vinegar in green. This is the opposite to most other crisp manufacturers.
[edit] Product lines
[edit] Flavours
- Baked Beans**
- BBQ Rib
- Cheese and Onion
- Feta and Herb**
- Greek Kebab**
- Heinz Tomato ketchup
- Lamb and Mint
- Marmite yeast extract
- Pickled Onion
- Prawn Cocktail
- Ready Salted
- Roast Chicken
- Salt and Vinegar
- Sausage and Ketchup**
- Smoky Bacon
- Spicy Chilli
- Steak and Onion
- Tomato and Basil**
- Turkey and Bacon**
** - Limited Edition
[edit] Past Flavours
(These flavours have all long been discontinued.)
- Cheese On Toast
- Toasted Cheese
- Bovril
- Paxo Stuffing
- Cheese And Chive
- Beef and Onion (Since September 2006)
- Worcester Sauce (Since September 2006)
- Barbecue (Replaced with 'BBQ Rib' in September 2006)
- Curry
During the Comic Relief period in 2005, Walkers released several unique flavours that were made by combining two of their normal flavours. These included:
- Barbecue Chicken
- Bacon and Ketchup
- Cheese and Pickle
- Cheese and Bacon (for Quavers)
For every pack of these special flavours sold, 1p went to the Comic Relief charity.
[edit] Variations
- Lites (Low fat)
- Salt and Vinegar
- Cheese and Onion
- Ready Salted
- Honeyroasted Ham (Similar to Roast Chicken)
- Potato Heads (Low fat with no artificial colours/flavourings/preservatives)
- Prawn Cocktail
- Cheese and Onion
- Ready Salted
- Unsalted
- Roast Chicken
- Salt and Vinegar
- Cheese Heads (Similar to Potato Heads)
- Baked
- Cheese & Onion
- Ready Salted
- Salt & Vinegar
- Max
- Salt and Vinegar (discontinued upon introduction of Nobbys Salt & Vinegar)
- Cheese and Onion
- Chargrilled Steak
- Paprika
- Salt 'n' Shake
- Original
- Sensations
These flavours replaced the original Sensations flavours in the Spring of 2006. The original flavours were:
-
- Chargrilled Steak & Peppercorn Sauce
- Four Cheese and Red Onion
- Oven Roasted Chicken & Thyme
- Roast Pork & Creamy Mustard Sauce
- Roasted Onion & Balsamic Vinegar
- Sea Salt and Cracked Black Pepper
- Slow Roasted Lamb & Mint
- Thai Sweet Chilli
- Sensations Oriental Crackers
- Sensations Poppadom Bites
- Squares
- Salt and Vinegar
- Ready Salted
- Cheese and Onion
[edit] Pack sizes
4 common pack sizes.
- 34.5g standard bags
- 25g "multipack" bags
- 50g (formerly 55g) "Big Eat" bags, produced primarily for the pub trade
- Cinema size bag sold in some cinemas, around 70g
The 50g bag size for the pub trade was produced following a survey by Walkers regarding the average size of a social group in a pub, and the average number of crisps people would take when a bag was passed around; on average, the purchaser should be left with the same weight of crisps in their Big Eat bag after passing it around their friends as would be found in a standard 34.5g pack.
[edit] Other types of snack food
- Chipsticks
- Ready Salted
- Salt and Vinegar
- Doritos
- Cool Original
- Tangy Cheese
- Chilli Heatwave
- Dippas Lightly Salted
- Dippas Hint Of Lime
- French Fries
- Cheese and Onion
- Salt and Vinegar
- Ready Salted
- Worcester Sauce
- Frazzles
- Smokey Bacon
- Nobby's Nuts
- Dry Roasted
- Salted
- Chili
- Bacon
- Nobby's Crisps
- Balti Chicken
- Salt and Vinegar
- Barbecue Rib
- Steak
- Squares
- Plain
- Cheese and Onion
- Salt and Vinegar
- BBQ Sauce
- Quavers
- Cheesy
- Salt and Vinegar
- Prawn Cocktail
- Monster Munch
- Roast Beef
- Flamin' Hot
- Pickled Onion
- Wotsits
- Cheesy
- Flamin' Hot
- Prawn Cocktail
- Twisted BBQ
- Twisted Really Cheesy
- Snaps
- Spicy Tomato
