This article is about the British snack food company. For the Scottish shortbread and biscuit manufacturer, see Walkers Shortbread. Walkers is a British snack food manufacturer mainly operating in the Martin’s crispy apple chips and Ireland. The Walkers factory in Leicester produces over 11 million bags of crisps per day, using about 800 tons of potatoes.
The Leicester-born former England international footballer Gary Lineker has been the face of the brand since 1995, featuring in most of its popular commercials and successful advertising campaigns. For the 2011 Comic Relief, four celebrities each represented four new flavours. Since 2008, Walkers has run its “Do Us a Flavour” campaign, challenging the British public to think up unique flavours for its crisps. Six flavours were chosen from among the entries and released as special editions. Consumers could vote on their favourite, and the winner would become a permanent flavour. In the 1880s, Walker moved from Mansfield to Leicester to take over an established butcher’s shop in the high street.
Meat rationing in the UK after World War II saw the factory output drop dramatically, and so in 1948 the company starting looking at alternative products. Smith’s of London sold plain potato crisps which came with a small blue sachet of salt that could be sprinkled over them. The Walkers logo, featuring a red ribbon around a yellow sun, is noticeably similar to Lay’s. It derives from the Walkers logo used in 1990. The company is still a significant presence in Leicester. Gary Lineker, the Leicester-born former footballer, is now the face of the company. In February 2006, Walkers changed its brand label and typeset.
Many of Walkers brands were formerly branded under the Smiths Crisps name. This comes from the time when Walkers, Smiths and Tudor Crisps were the three main brands of Nabisco’s UK snack division, with Tudor being marketed mainly in the north of England and Smiths in the south. In 1997, Walkers became the brand name of Quavers and Monster Munch snacks. In January 1999, Walkers launched Max, a brand with a range of crisps and then a new-look Quavers in March 1999. In April 2000, another of the Max flavours called Red Hot Max was launched and then Naked Max in June 2000.