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The Smith's Snackfood Company

The Smith's Snackfood Company is a British-Australian snack food brand owned by the American multinational food, snack, and beverage corporation PepsiCo. It is best known for its brand of potato crisps. The company was founded by Frank Smith and Jim Viney in the United Kingdom in 1920 as Smiths Potato Crisps Ltd, originally packaging a twist of salt with its crisps in greaseproof paper bags which were sold around London. The dominant brand in the UK until the 1960s when Golden Wonder took over with Cheese & Onion, Smith's countered by creating Salt & Vinegar flavour (first tested by their north-east England subsidiary Tudor) which was launched nationally in 1967.

After establishing the product in the UK, Smith set up the company in Australia in 1932. Both versions of Smiths have had various owners, but were reunited under PepsiCo ownership, with the UK business being purchased in 1989, and the Australian business in 1998. Smith's Snackvend Stand is the branch of the company that operates vending machines. The Smith's brand in the United Kingdom is now a sub brand to the main Walkers brand, while in Australia, Smiths is the main brand.

United Kingdom

Smith's Potato Crisps was formed by 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. 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.

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 waifer 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 (Smiths' main competitor in Britain) produced their Cheese & Onion version, and Smith's countered with Salt & Vinegar (tested first by their north-east England subsidiary Tudor) 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. 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" (a play on The Prime Minister, and as part of a wider campaign), 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. Subsequently, Pepsico withdrew the brand, in favour of 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.

Current products

Chipsticks - extruded corn starch snack in the shape of a french fry, in salt and vinegar flavour.
Frazzles - extruded corn starch snack in the shape of a bacon rasher, in bacon flavour.
Bacon Fries - extruded cereal starch snack, in bacon flavour.
Scampi Fries - extruded cereal starch snack, in scampi flavour.
Funyuns - extruded cereal starch snack in the shape of onion rings, in onion flavour.
Snaps - potato snack in the shape of a curled up rectangle, in spicy tomato flavour.

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 (Australia) 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 (Pre-Salted) 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 (blue packet), Salt & Vinegar (magenta packet), Chicken (green packet), Barbecue (orange packet) and Cheese & Onion (yellow packet) have remained the mainstay flavours of the brand since the 1980s. Many other 'limited edition' variants have also been tried over the years. During the late 1980s, the company introduced the famous advertising mascot Gobbledok, a chip obsessed alien character similar to the popular characters E.T. and ALF.

In 1968, Associated Products and Distribution Pty Ltd (APD), the food group holding company in British Tobacco Co. (Aust), bought a 41.5% share of Smith's Potato Crisps (Australia)'s parent company, including all Australian shareholders. Over the next 20 years, other takeovers and new products (including Twisties and Burger Rings brands) drove growth. PepsiCo took over the company in 1998. In 1990, the APD name was replaced by CCA Snackfoods.

In 1998, the Smiths 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 owned by PepsiCo. 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 (approximately equal to the previous 1975 large size of 6½oz).

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, peanuts and cashews
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 - competitor of Pringles
Smith's Thinly Cut - thinly sliced potato chips range in various flavours
Twisties - cheese or chicken flavoured extruded snack

Previous products in UK & Australia

Bats - Batburger flavoured snack in shape of bats, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of the Horror bags range.
Battle Tanks - Cheese and onion flavoured snack in shape of tanks, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of Battle Bags range.
Battle Planes - Salt and Vinegar flavoured snack in shape of planes, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of Battle Bags range.
Bones - Salt and vinegar flavoured snack in shape of bones, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of the Horror bags collection
Cheezers - cheese flavoured corn puffs
Cheese Flavoured Moments - Cheese flavoured triangles, with cheese powder centre
Chinese Quavers - Spicy beef flavoured
Chipitos - toasted cheese puffs
Chipsticks - Ready salted flavoured
Claws - Bacon flavoured snack in shape of claws, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of the Horror bags collection
Crispy Tubes - manufactured during the 1980s and available in Lightly Salted and Salt & Vinegar flavours
Fangs - Cheese and onion flavoured snack in shape of fangs, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of the Horror bags collection
Farmer Browns - animal shaped cereal snack
Football Crazy - corn and potato balls
French Fries - Small crisp potatoes straws similar in appearance and taste to french fries - now owned and manufactured by Snack Brands Australia and under the Walkers name
Jackets - Manufactured during the mid-1980s, these were crisps where the potatoes had not been peeled, leaving potato skin around the edges. There was an advert which featured dancing potatoes singing "We want to be jackets" in falsetto voices, and the slogan "So good, every potato wants to be one"
Lay's - Thinly sliced potato chips
Maize Pops - toffee coated popped maize
Monster Munch - Still manufactured, under the Walkers name
OnYums - onion flavoured rings
Quavers - introduced 1968, now sold under the Walkers name
Ribs - vinegar flavoured snack in shape of ribs, manufactured in the 1970s. Part of the Horror Bags range.
Ruffles - crinkle cut potato chips
Smiths Salt 'n' Shake - still manufactured, under the Walkers name
Smith's Crisps
Smith's Crinkle Cut Crisps - crinkled cut various flavours
Smith's Selections - thinly sliced potato chips range in various flavours, now Smith's Thinly Cut
Smokees - Bacon flavoured curls
Squares - Ready salted, cheese & onion & salt & vinegar flavour square shaped potato crisps, still manufactured under the Walkers name
Sunbites - wholegrain chips
Thins - thinly sliced potato chips - now owned and manufactured by Snack Brands Australia
Tuba Loops - tube shaped potato snacks
Twists - Manufactured during the 1970s, these were available in Cheese & Onion, Salt & Vinegar, and Ready Salted
Twisted - Flamin' hot flavour corn puffs, still manufactured under the Cheetos brand
Wafflers - Bacon flavour waffles (previously sold to Wotsits)
Zodiacs - Mystery flavoured snack in shape of zodiac signs