40 Fun Facts About Walkers Crisps

Which English city is home to Walkers and its factory, the largest crisp production plant in the world?

Leicester has been home to Walkers since 1948, and its plant there turns out over 11 million bags of crisps a day.

Which former England striker, born in the brand's home city, became the face of Walkers adverts in 1995?

Gary Lineker signed his first Walkers deal in 1994, and in 2000 his adverts were voted ninth in Channel 4's poll of the 100 greatest TV ads.

Which Walkers flavour comes in a blue bag, although most rival British brands sell it in green?

Cheese & Onion has always worn blue at Walkers, the company insists, yet 44% of Britons in a 2016 YouGov poll said the flavour belongs in green.

Which Walkers flavour, launched in 1967, was inspired by Britain's love of fish and chips?

Salt & Vinegar arrived 13 years after the first flavoured Walkers crisp, and it comes in a green bag where most rivals use blue.

Before it began frying potatoes in 1948, what kind of business was the Walker family firm behind Walkers crisps?

A butcher's shop was the Walker family trade, but post-war meat rationing left it short of stock, so the firm turned to hand-slicing and frying potatoes.

Which American food and drink giant has owned Walkers since 1989, alongside its US snack arm Frito-Lay?

PepsiCo bought Walkers when it already held a third of Britain's crisp market, then built it into the country's biggest snack maker.

Which gas has Walkers pumped into its foil crisp bags since 1996 to keep the contents fresh?

Nitrogen replaced the ordinary air in the bags three years after Walkers swapped its old packets for foil ones in 1993.

Which flavour won Walkers' first 'Do Us a Flavour' public vote in 2009, earning its creator £50,000?

Builder's Breakfast, dreamt up by Emma Rushin of Derbyshire, beat five rival finalists but was dropped from the range just a year later.

Which animal gave its name to a Cajun-spiced finalist in Walkers' 2009 'Do Us a Flavour' competition?

Squirrel reached the shelves as Cajun Squirrel, one of six finalists picked from the public's entries, but it lost the vote to stay on sale.

In 2018 anti-plastic campaigners protested against Walkers by doing what with their empty crisp packets?

Posting them back worked almost too well: Royal Mail had to sort the loose packets by hand and begged people to use envelopes. Walkers launched a recycling scheme that December.

Which pop group appeared on Walkers packets in 1997 and teamed up with the brand again in 2019?

Spice Girls packs sold 16 million within months of the 1997 launch, a campaign Walkers called its biggest promotional effort to date.

Which England striker lent his name to a 1990s limited-edition Walkers flavour that punned on a vegetable?

Michael Owen became 'Cheese & Owen' on special packets that carried his likeness, sold beside another flavour renamed after the brand's regular frontman.

Which player's surname featured in a punning Walkers flavour handed to Foxes fans in their title-winning season?

Jamie Vardy fronted the 'Vardy Salted' bags given out before a match against Chelsea. Walkers later marked the title itself with a 'Salt and Victory' edition.

In 2022 Walkers offered a £100,000 reward to whoever found the best crisp in which shape?

Heart-shaped crisps were the quarry of a UK-wide search that Walkers launched in December, with a single finder taking the whole prize.

Walkers' 2019 packaging arranged drawings of Big Ben and red phone boxes into the shape of which flag?

Union Jack patterns built from landmarks such as Liverpool's Liver Building celebrated the brand's British heritage, and the logo moved to the middle of the pack.

Walkers went to a tax tribunal in 2024 arguing that which of its snacks was not a potato crisp?

Poppadoms lost the case: because the snack is made from potato pellets, the tribunal ruled it sits with crisps and must keep carrying VAT.

Walkers set up its own farms in Ukraine and Spain to grow which crop for its frying oil?

Sunflowers supply the 'SunSeed' oil Walkers switched to in 2006, when it promised to cut the saturated fat in its crisps by 70%.

Which curly Walkers potato snack, launched in 1968, takes its name from a musical note?

Quavers share a curly outline with the note, and their main ingredient is potato starch, deep fried to a texture like a prawn cracker.

Which cheesy corn puff did Walkers buy in 2002, then keep on sale instead of rebranding it as Cheetos?

Wotsits had been on sale since 1971, and Walkers relaunched them in January 2003 with the main flavour renamed Really Cheesy.

Which Walkers corn snack, launched in 1977 with a Roast Beef flavour, comes in paw-like shapes?

Monster Munch first went on sale as The Prime Monster, a play on the prime minister, and took its lasting name a year later.

Which corn snack from the Walkers stable is made in the shape of a bacon rasher?

Frazzles are extruded from corn starch instead of being sliced from potatoes, and they are sold under a sister brand name, not the Walkers logo.

Which premium Walkers range, launched in 2002, comes in black bags and includes Thai Sweet Chilli?

Sensations was pitched at adults and the top end of the market, and the range has since grown to take in flavoured peanuts.

Which Walkers range of ridged crisps, launched in 1999, has sold flavours such as Paprika and Flame Grilled Steak?

Max started out as a brand in its own right, and in 2001 it added flavours including Chip Shop Curry and Chargrilled Steak.

Which Irish company's owner, Joe 'Spud' Murphy, invented flavoured crisps in 1954, the year Walkers launched its first?

Tayto worked out how to add seasoning during production, and crisp makers around the world sought to buy the rights to its technique.

Which crisp maker, founded in London in 1920, became a stablemate of Walkers when Nabisco bought it in 1982?

Smith's dominated British crisps until the 1960s, and several snacks it created now carry the Walkers name instead.

Jimmy Carr, Stephen Fry, Al Murray and Frank Skinner each fronted a Walkers flavour in 2011 for which charity?

Comic Relief gained from sales of punning flavours such as Stephen Fry Up and Jimmy Con Carne, which raced each other to sell the most packs.

In Walkers' 2001 'Moneybags' promotion, what did lucky buyers find sealed inside winning crisp packets?

Banknotes worth £5, £10 and £20 went into special bags, and two factory workers were sacked for stealing prizes from the production line.

Which watchdog banned Walkers' 2016 'Spell and Go' competition after more than 100 entrants complained?

Advertising Standards Authority investigators judged parts of the promotion misleading, after customers protested that it was impossible to win.

Which experimental chef led the judging panel for Walkers' first 'Do Us a Flavour' contest in 2009?

Heston Blumenthal and his panel sifted the public's entries down to six finalists, which then went on sale for a nationwide vote.

Which Walkers flavour was the clear favourite of over-60s in a 2014 YouGov survey of classic crisp flavours?

Ready Salted, the flavour that has been around longest, won the over-60s by a decisive margin, and 72% of Britons in a 2016 poll said its packet should be red.

Which Walkers flavour, added in the 1970s, was the favourite of 18-to-24-year-olds in a 2014 YouGov survey?

Prawn Cocktail was inspired by the fashionable 1970s starter, and in the survey its popularity climbed steadily as the age groups got younger.

In 2013 Walkers angered vegetarians by putting real meat into Roast Chicken and which other flavour?

Smoky Bacon and its poultry stablemate went back to vegetarian flavourings in 2016, three years after the change shut meat-avoiders out.

Which savoury spread flavours the Walkers crisp that returned for good during 2015's 'Bring Me Back' campaign?

Marmite came back permanently alongside the campaign, whose public vote separately rescued Beef and Onion from a field of five retired flavours.

Which premium 'all natural' Walkers range, launched in 2009, supported the rainforest charity Cool Earth?

Red Sky gave to the charity in proportion to the packs it sold, but poor sales led Walkers to scrap the range in 2014.

Which flavour won Walkers' 2014 'Do Us a Flavour' contest, landing its Essex creator a £1 million prize?

Pulled Pork in a Sticky BBQ Sauce took 26% of the public vote against five other finalists, yet it was only ever sold for a limited time.

Which North East crisp brand, a stablemate of Walkers in the 1980s, was later dropped by their shared owner?

Tudor once claimed two thirds of the crisp market in its home region and Scotland, and was known for TV adverts starring a Tyneside paperboy.

Which Walkers potato snack, named after its shape, featured comedian Lenny Henry in several early adverts?

Squares began life as Square Crisps in the 1970s and stayed under an older brand name until Walkers took the snack over in 2001.

In 1999 Walkers' owner moved ownership of the brand names out of Britain to a subsidiary in which country?

Switzerland became home to the brands through Frito-Lay Trading GmbH, and The Guardian reported that UK tax receipts fell to under a third of what they might have been.

Which sauce maker did Walkers partner with in 2001 to launch its Tomato Ketchup crisps?

Heinz put its name to a flavour better known as a Canadian favourite, where ketchup-flavoured chips date back to the 1970s.

Under which brand name, with a near-identical sun logo, are Walkers-style crisps sold across most of Europe?

Lay's is the name the owner uses almost everywhere else, though Egypt gets Chipsy, Mexico gets Sabritas, and Britain and Ireland keep Walkers.